I wanted to remind people that there was a time when music required an attention span.
When I get compared to artists like Jose Gonzalez or Bon Iver, I can't help but think, "I've been doing this since they were in third grade."
We're all human and life is complicated.
I make music to process - because I have to, not for praise or accolades or reactions.
There were a lot more girls at the shows early on. I'd get off stage and there would be options. Those days are long gone, thank god.
Throughout my life, there's just periods when I write and periods when I don't. I don't feel like anything's really blocked. "Writer's block" sounds so dramatic and worrisome, and I don't worry about it. I know deep down that I'm a writer, and it's just a matter of time until it comes back, and when it does, it'll be good like it's always been.
I didn't want to put myself, or anyone else, asleep with another quintessential Mark Kozelek album.
You really think all of those indie music dorks go to SXSW every year to check out music? They go there to wear their laminates and act important and try to get laid.
Songs are puzzles - you get an intro, or maybe an end, but you gotta fill in the rest. Sometimes they come easy and sometimes they're a pain in the ass.
The music business, and the travel that comes with it, is stressful, challenging, redundant, exhausting, exciting, and often very depressing.
I don't make demos. I don't have the interest or the energy or the time.
Trying to cope with the balance between home life and road life has been a theme in my music since early Red House Painters records.
When you get older, you're bothered, or inspired, by other things in life than a girl breaking up with you. Things get heavier as you get older.
I feel like when the songwriting slows, I'd love to help others with their records. If it's something I really believe in, it's worth the effort.
I wanted to give my first instincts a chance without shooting them down immediately, which I sometimes do.
Anyone who has toured as long as I have, or who has traveled as extensively, and says that they've never cheated is lying.
Nylon string is still a new love and I'm not tired of it yet.
Like many musicians, it's my roots in music, playing cover songs. I've done probably a lot more covers than the average person who does what I do, but I'm very proud of it, and I do feel like I really bring a lot artistically to these covers.
When you're a touring musician, you're always turning over new rocks and there's always a certain level of tension in your life. The music business, and the travel that comes with it, is stressful, challenging, redundant, exhausting, exciting, and often very depressing. After all of these years, I'm still trying to cope with aspects of it.
"The Moderately Talented..." is just a commentary on the conflict that happens when a young artist girl looks up to you, but you're attracted to them in a different way than they are to you.
I'm a boxing junkie, a serial-killer junkie, and a classical guitar junkie. All of these guys are great, poetic references.
Demos are something you do in the early stages of your career, but when you get going, you just go in and record the song.
I'm 45 and I don't have time to spend two years of my life bringing in producers and dragging the record around the planet.
I'm always moving forward creatively and don't like stalling, trying to find the perfect snare drum sound.
I've guess I've gotten older and my sex appeal has waned. It's OK. I've got an amazing girlfriend and she keeps me happy.
