For as long as I can remember, I have written songs because I wanted to, because I was experiencing something that couldn't be described except through a sound.
Life is passing you by as you speak, you're on a path and you're all on the same path toward death.
I think every musician is different, every artist is different, and in a perfect world people would be able to pursue their own path and have the inspiration and the drive to, and the energy and dedication to take their path to its fruition. I don't really believe in formulas.
Lots of people take the option of not activating their own life, of really letting it happen.
It's not my fault that people are perverts.
It's very hard to separate what is a conscious decision and what's not.
I think that every band is different, and in fact that's one of the biggest problems with the old-school music industry is that... one band would be successful according to a certain approach, and then every other band in the label gets sent down the same tube.
I love to read about music and about art, but I don't try and take things about mythology or guidelines as to how I'm to behave as an artist. It's the realm of intellectual debate. Actually, more and more my direction is trying to get further away from being self-conscious of what the parameters are of the mainstream, where it intersects with the underground.
I really love traveling, I love playing.
We don't have T-shirts with my face, but there I can see the beginnings, especially young girls seeing me as sort of a icon in that way. And in that regard I'm more than happy to step in.
[When I happen to] read interviews where people are such pros and they come out looking so good, [it comes off as] a little smug or something.
Generally I try to read anything but indie rock journalism or anything about music at all, especially in the summer.
In my imaginary utopian world there would be a greater allegiance between music writers and musicians.
I like the idea of interviews where you just talk about stuff instead of where it's my chance to talk to my public through something else.
I do like touring but my life sort of starts to fall apart under it after a certain point. So you just have to stop. And it's hard to.
I have an identity crisis which is not resolved because I'm a dual citizen. My whole family is American, and I was born in India but I was raised in Canada.
I'm a chick for sure.
I always felt like I had to leave Canada, which I think is a common perspective - feeling as if you have to leave because otherwise you'll be too soft, and that objective reality exists in America. And I'm starting to feel like that doesn't have to be the case.
Of course there are influences, of course there are things that are inspiring, but it's weird to think that I'm trying to keep a mental inventory of them and report them clearly to whomever might ask.
I see how 14-year old girls react to me and I think I'm a good role model. Rockstar maybe not, but I'm willing to play with it for a little while, until my hair gets gray.
In Canada there's an extensive grant system that really allows people to make their work without having to suffer that much, and I'm staring to come around on that, that maybe people don't have to suffer. Maybe you can just not be unhappy and make beautiful music in Canada, maybe that's ok.
The things that I've seen where people are trying to change the definition of what a band has to be, those are the things that end up being inspiring.
Oftentimes the most produced and synth-tastic songs are the ones that end up sounding the best acoustic.
I don't really write journals and stuff and then adapt them to music, it's completely within the form of the song. My great obsession and basically the bane of my existence is caring probably too much about every word, but it's too late to change my career path.
I am really inspired by writers, and weirdly - respect music journalists, which I think makes me the exception amongst most musicians. I think it's a craft. I think it's been really neglected - sadly. I think about the days of the great legendary rock critics. Who's going to become that when magazines and newspapers don't pay anyone properly or don't seem to respect the history or research that is required?
