The touring thing is such a huge time commitment. I'm really feeling like I want to start writing and recording music again. But I have to leave for tour tomorrow. That's kind of frustrating; at the end of the day, you're plugging into this lifestyle. It's the "band lifestyle," and that's weird! I would like for touring to be creative in its own right.

The simpler songs are just done when the lyric has been stated; the more complex or band-oriented stuff can go in a million directions.

Fleet Foxes will never, ever, under no circumstances, from now until the world chokes on gas fumes, sign to a major label. This includes all subsidiaries or permutations thereunder. Till we die.

The lyrics to me are a result of the emotional and creative climate present while making the record as well as personally going through a sort of mid-twenties stock-taking.

There are personal topics on the record that have nothing to do with creativity but were maybe amplified by the demands of the band. I can't say that none of these things would be present without creativity as a catalyst, but it was definitely on my mind a lot while writing.

Our vocal harmonies started to feel like a cop-out: all group-singing, all the time.

A label is like a bank with all these really important relationships, and maybe an aesthetic or a point of view. But if you only want to release two songs, you don't need the guy who can talk to all the retailers, because they're not going to stock two songs.