Music was my friend when I was a teenager, and I would inhabit and take comfort in lyrics. That's how I want to write.

If you can express something in the simplest way possible, I think there's something noble in that. It's easy to flesh stuff out and get all purple with it, being cryptic and wearing masks... I think it's a bit adolescent. I wanted to write in a way that was vulnerable. I wanted to have courage in stripping back the opaque stuff so it was just raw. I like lyrics that are a lifeline, that have a purpose to them and are not just meandering around in a masturbatory way. They cut the page.

You can get into a comfort zone writing lyrics, like wearing a mask. But I wanted to feel uncomfortable when I was listening back to the lyrics; I wanted to squirm.

I'm appalled by the tendency of some rock records to perfect everything to the point where it sounds like Botox and polish it so heavily that there's no humanity left in it.

I like simple writing. I'd rather read Hemingway than Burroughs.

Music was my friend when I was a teenager, and I would inhabit and take comfort in lyrics. That's how I want to write.

By the time you finish touring the record, everything that's exciting to me is what's ahead of me. I want to write the next paragraph.