It's new, it's improved, it's old fashioned.

The things you absorb you will ultimately secrete. It's all out there and available for you to enjoy...and be nourished by.

Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning, you throw on your suspenders, and you subvocalize and just think. They seem to form like calcium. I can't think of a story right off the bat that was that interesting. I write things on the back of my hand, usually, and sing into a tape recorder.

It's cold out there, colder than a ticket taker's smile at the Ivar Theatre on a Saturday night.

Your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they've been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing. I'm learning to break those habits by playing instruments I know absolutely nothing about, like a bassoon or a waterphone.

Sometimes words are just music themselves. Like 'Chicago' is a very musical sounding name.

Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting.