I live in Los Angeles, which is the second most polluted city in the world, and I wake up in the morning to dirt all over my window.

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

I'm in an odd position because I write across so many genres for so many people and they all influence me, and if I'm going to write as honest an album as possible, it's going to be layered.

I knew I could make money from songwriting, so how much and when was not really the question.

I can go write an absolutely saccharine pop record with a really catchy lyric for another artist that could become a hit without meaning anything to me, but that's more the science laboratory, that's the other thing.

When life gives you the opportunity to check off a thing on the bucket list, you have to check them.

I think the best songs are being written by the very under-stated, under-appreciated indie artists. The thing that separates them from mainstream success is they either consciously or unknowingly refuse to deliver on a big chorus.