I feel like every great record is like a world in itself.

I had these glorified ideas about San Francisco and its drug culture - I thought inspiration would just hit me and I would get these San Francisco drugs in my system and all of a sudden an amazing record would come out. But that's not really what happened at all.

When I read about myself and how writers have focused on negative stuff, it hurts my feelings.

[YSL creative director] Hedi [Slimane] is a music-obsessed guy. I might've originally met him through Sky.

The touring band is DIIV, and the songs are always written with them in mind. But the new record is going to be more "me."

Some kid can say, "Hey, I really want you to play my town in Switzerland, or Sweden, or Latvia," and they could have a fun night at the show. On the other hand, all those kids could have a record that means something to them in a more personal way a couple months down the road. The live band is a really important thing for us, but my focus is on the album now.

The music starts as being way separate from the lyrics, and I write - I have notebooks that I fill with drawings and just words, and stuff that I've written.