I enjoy recording live better, but I think by the nature of it you are going to end up with something that's a little bit more traditional.
With my own music, I try to get away from things that are familiar and things that would be easy for me to go to.
I've been practicing for years, trying to figure out how to record an entire band live.
Somebody else is satisfied by five Bentleys. I'm satisfied by a beautiful string arrangement.
I didn't want to do something typical.
When you work with somebody for a long period of time, you develop a shorthand with everything.
I'm always working on my own music, too. I've been working on a record for a few years.
Technology was something I avoided when I started out - I didn't even have electric guitars. Only played acoustic.
I enjoy the collaboration. I always envied people in bands who got to have that interaction.
I've been arguing with people for 10 years about tape versus digital, and I believe tape is absolutely essential in getting the sound that's conducive to the enjoyment of music.
There are people who've prepared their whole lives for real heavy success and bask in it. They're so good at it and they obviously love it. I'm just happy to be making a record.
I know my own limitations. And if somebody says, "I need songs for a cartoon garage band - they look like this and they should sound like this," it gives you a direction. I like having that kind of assignment.
Back then, Pro Tools only had four or eight tracks, so we couldn't actually hear all the tracks. We could only hear eight at a time, so if a song had 25 or 30 tracks, we wouldn't be able to hear it until we went into the studio an put it all on tape. The process was a little bit backwards.
I'm sure the music is going to come out. I'm not sure if I'm going to put out 12"s or put the songs on my website. I just have to get them done.
Sometimes, I think the way the music business has been destructive and the way the fans are been put through it and try to navigate through it, so much is so foreign to what musicians would actually want to do or what would be natural to them.
My whole generation's mission is to kill the cliche...it's one of the reasons a lot of my generation are always on the fence about things. They're afraid to commit to anything for fear of seeming like a cliche. They're afraid to commit to their lives because they see so much of the world as a cliche.
I had long hair when I was a teenager.
I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?
I've said for years to wives and mothers, you must start to see yourself as Sarah Connor. You must equip your children with the information they need to survive an ever-changing world.
I think trying to be offbeat is the most boring thing possible.
Just out of curiosity, I wonder what makes music or culture or taste go in certain directions. Who knows what the forces are behind it.
I try not to do email; I try to talk to people on the phone.
[Early on,] the attitude was that what I was doing wasn't music.
I love British humor. It's just so - surreal.
I'm more critical of my songwriting than anybody, but I've worked really hard in the last five to 10 years to improve.
