When I was living in Boston I worked in this store that played the college radio station. I had to listen to it all day, and I didn't care for most of it.

Being in a rock band, I feel a certain responsibility to have a weird haircut. I mean, who else gets to do that?

It would get really alienating, to have my face be the face of a cause. So much just comes down to the songs. I just want to give us the opportunity to write great songs. Even our work in Haiti is limited by how good our songs are. We just need to get rid of as much of the bullshit as possible, so we can have a life, so we have something to write about.

A lot of stuff is dark in a way, but unless you're really looking at a situation for what it actually is, it's hard to be hopeful - or meaningless to be hopeful about it unless it's actually based in a real possibility.

What I miss [about church] is being forced to be in community with people that aren't the same as me.

Years ago, in order to stay sane, I had to really make an effort not to think about how people view us. There's just so much noise, positive and negative, and not much good comes out of thinking about it.

A lot of artists write about the same things their whole career.