When a city is unstimulating, you get pretty isolated.

I think that there's a proliferation of music that is done entirely in the bedroom for an Internet audience, but there's no way in hell that you could actually kill off a live show, and its importance in the creation of music - it's just impossible.

I released that side of things really as kind of an introduction to where I came from musically, back in the day when all I had was a keyboard, a drum machine, and a four-track. So I was doing these little synth-pop ditties, and it's how I learned to write.

My thought with harmonies and melodies in general, is that if it doesn't come right away then it's never going to come at all.

My dad is obsessed with music, so I was raised around this guitar player that really wanted me to be a guitar player.

The more I know, the more I realise I don't know. And the more I realise I'll never truly understand.

I felt like I needed to get a few side projects out of my system before I settled in to do the new record. Usually what's asked of you, everything's a year cycle. When you get caught up in that cycle, it can be kind of brutal, actually. It was good I got to take a year off, with no pressure coming from anywhere.