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

When I moved to L.A., I was penniless, absolutely beyond broke and in debt up to my eyeballs.

I would rather put out two year-defining songs a year than flood the market with eight or nine songs.

I'm actually introverted and shy.

The only thing contrived is the production - you can over-produce to the point you kill a good idea, you can under-produce so that the song's amazing but you'll have folks at a radio station saying they won't play it, so there's this balance, and it has to be true.

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 you're around enormously successful people you realise their success isn't an accident - it's about work.