If you're talking to an architect, he can look at a blank piece of paper, and once the initial design is there, the formula kicks in. Each room should have something unique and different about it - much the same way that in a song, every eight bars or so, a new piece of information should be introduced.

I'm actually introverted and shy.

The Beatles are the most credible band in the history of music.

Honest always sells. Always has, always will.

I think the true test of a pop song, for me, and I've talked to a lot of other writers about this, is you take your demo, you pop it in your car and you drive down Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica, and that's the Hollywood car test.

I am not opposed to doing a side project, like Death Cab for Cutie, where it's completely different from my own band.

I listen to the far left which informs the far right. Somewhere in the middle is where we end up.