My father was a minister and so rock music was banned in our house.

There's room for everybody on the planet to be creative and conscious if you are your own person. If you're trying to be like somebody else, then there is isn't.

My brother was a fantastic cheerleader for my development as a musician. He was almost 10 years older than me and would really push me to develop as a songwriter.

For a song cycle to work, you have to feel these things when you hear them and you either have an emotional reaction to it or you don't. The plotline is something that gets woven together in the backstory.

An interview will seem very sane to me, and I'll find out that the journalist was laughing out of the side of his mouth half of the time.

When you stop putting yourself on the line, and you don't touch your own heart, how do you expect to touch other people?

Take a different route to the coffee shop to see what you can see and hear. When we get in a routine, we can become zombie-like and shut down. It's about discipline. You have to push yourself.