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.

I'm looking forward to doing things more intuitively in the future, just going with whatever happens and not immediately categorizing it as potentially good or bad or original or whatever.

I write all the time but often abandon things I don't think will go anywhere. It's rare that I'll labor over writing something that doesn't feel like it will turn into a keeper.

The only thing I think about is doing something where I'm the only person making all the decisions - I think that would be fun to do, just to get it out of my system. And honestly, I kind of got it out of my system when I recorded three songs and put them online. That was enough of a solo experience for me; it scratched that itch.

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.

I think that's becoming more and more of a priority, letting other aspects of life take precedent over making music, or just approaching the whole thing more holistically.

Our day-to-day lives recording and touring aren't that different from those of Metallica, even though the perceived worldview is totally different. So that can be a difficult thing to reconcile sometimes.