Gord Downie is extraordinary. It's safe to say there's nobody like that guy that I've ever come across.

I was struck by the effortless way they moved between musical styles, all the while managing to make each their own. It was instantaneous that I knew I wanted to work with them.

Like any band, including mine, there's a comfort zone that's hard to escape. You kind of need an outsider to tell you that. You think it's your vocabulary, but it's a cocoon that's safe. Producers are supposed to tell you to try things a different way.

I can't think of very many people who work as hard at the craft of songcraft as Gord Downie does. It was life or death. Every syllable was important.

Because I'm sort of an honorary Canadian, I don't think the others grasped the cultural significance of who the Tragically Hip were before the tour. Talking to Sheryl Crow and her people and the guys in Wilco, everyone was ecstatic to be on the tour, it was a lot of fun. But it even took me a while to grasp the idea that this is not just a band, this is a cultural artifact, what the Hip means in Canada. There is nobody else like them.

Gord Downie is extraordinary. It's safe to say there's nobody like that guy that I've ever come across.

The lesson there is that there's no hiding the sound of a band that is bored with its own music. Whatever it takes to create the sound of excitement, that's what you want to do.