I wanted to do an album that was very simple and very minimal in the context of instrumentation and stuff. I wanted to use as few means as possible to create a very powerful and interesting sound that would breathe.

I want the music to stand out a little bit more than many other bands do. I still have some stuff where I don't use the high hat, and I don't use any crash cymbals. It just makes for an interesting sound because you don't really notice it when it's not there, but if it was there, you would definitely hear it.

It's not really a conscious decision to do a quiet album or a noisier album. It's just something that happens, I guess.

I think you go through different phases when you do albums, and I think that they change according to where you are in your life and what you're inspired by at the moment.

If you want to do a movie about aliens coming down to Earth nowadays, you need to do it with a smile. When Tim Burton did Mars Attacks, he tried to make it a little bit kitschy, because it's not scary for people anymore. It's not scary that birds will attack you anymore, but I'm sure it was when Alfred Hitchcock made it. And it still is when you watch it.

This is the life I live, and this is the stuff I experience. And like any good writer, I should just write about what goes in my life and what goes on around me. So that's what I chose to do.

I don't really watch too many remakes. I saw Scorsese's version of Cape Fear, which was good. That was a good remake.