I think I spent more time on the mellotron than on any other instrument in the studio, and it got to the point where I was like, "Well, you can't write an entire album on this instrument." But maybe I would!

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.

In the age of the mp3, you gotta make the package special, something that's worth owning.

I think that sonically, music speaks volumes more than words do, and I have always thought that and will continue to think that for the rest of my life.

After so many years of whispery, DIY vocals, there's this new generation of voices that are really starting to burst through the seams.

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.

I fell off a bridge when I was 14, then had surgery when I was 17. Now my left wrist is an inch-and-a-half shorter than my [right one] and doesn't quite have the mobility to wrap around a guitar neck without a bit of pain.