Being A Human Being Is Lost. For

For Any Producer I've Ever Worked With, Their Toughest Job Is To Convince Me To Not To Obscure My Vocals. A Lot Of People Don't Like The Sound Of Their Own Voice On, Like, Cassette Tape Or Something. It's Like That For Me, And Other Songwriters I Know. Like, "oh God, That's What I Sound Like?"

I Like Things That Reach A Little Further And Are A Little More Abstract, But I Don't Think That's What I Do Naturally Well. How I Write Naturally Is Probably What's Furthest From Me, And The Most Removed From What I Understand.

I Got On The Phone With The President Of My Label And I Said, "obviously, I Write Songs In A Lot Of Styles And Play A Lot Of Different Kinds Of Music. We're Getting Toward The End Of Our Business Collaboration. If You Could Envision A Record That You Wanted To Hear From Me, What Kind Of Record Would It Be?" It Wasn't Like Asking Him To Fill An Order, It Was Really Just A Conversation. For All The Things I'd Ever Asked Him, This Was One Thing I'd Never Asked, And I Don't Know Why. So I Was Curious. And The Thing That He Was Most Interested In Hearing Was A Solo Record.

Music Is My Thing. It's My Thing; It's What I Love. It's What I Do. It's Football To Me; It's Christmas To Me; Religion To Me; Poetry To Me.

There Are Times When I Want To Be Plainspoken About My Feelings In A Song. But There Are Other Times When It's Really Good To Try And Get My Head Around Different Kinds Of Song Structures, Or Maybe I Might Get Turned On By Trying To Write A Song That Would Fit In This One Scene In A Movie. And By The End Of All This, You Just End Up With A Bunch Of Different Ideas. And Songs Are Really Just Ideas.