I've never had trouble finding inspiration for new songs, no matter what I'm doing.
When you're 19, girlfriends are girlfriends. Then you start thinking about the rest of your life and stuff. I don't know; something happens with your glands. Your alimony gland.
We don't want Offspring-itis, Green Day-itis: you know, that thing where bands are all over the place at once, getting everything at once - major airplay on radio, major airplay on MTV.
I took a page out of the U2 book. They've always had a universal approach. Nobody doubts they're Christian, but there's an open door for everybody in any faith to consume the music at any level.
There's a lot of spirituality and hope in our music that I think people are catching on to. It's not punk, it's not Green Day, not Offspring, not Soundgarden, not Stone Temple Pilots, not all of the other bands that are coming out.
Our success just flies in the face of critics or people who would rather that we just failed... because we didn't fit into the style of the times or our lyrics were too upfront or too earnest or whatever.
Until you solve problems like fear individually, resolve why individuals feel the need to believe in whatever, there's really no point in organizations, in things that turn the world into a concept rather than an individual fact.
I have never been able to separate - nor have I wanted to - my personal love and desire for truth, passion, and understanding from my lyrics.
If I were to sit around and think about all the things that were said about Live, I'd never get anything done.
I hit this point - I guess you'd say an end of a chapter - where I felt like I kind of did everything. I wasn't interested in music. It was a really strange feeling, and needless to say, it freaked me out a little bit. I really started to go inward and say, 'Hey, what is this about?'
From the very beginning, we were all a hundred and ten percent about the music, from the very early days when we could barely play our instruments, and we were just covering other people's songs when we were in high school.
Music, in its clearest and simplest form, can be a catalyst to thought, but that's about it.
We never really write 'love' love songs. There's always something twisted about them. But as far as love songs, women just became way more important to us after we turned 21, as a band in general. Kind of broke up our boyhood solidarity as we started branching out into babes.
The message of 'The Distance To Here' is no secret. It is a message of love and an invitation to myself and to those who want to come along to ask the big questions and not feel uncool doing it.
We've never been your traditional rock-pop band. Lyrically, I've always had more of an interest in spirituality and that kind of thing.
You're living in a fantasy to think that music can actually change something.
Life takes turns. There are forks in the road.
We've never been satisfied with just making 'me' music. What we're doing is trying to go to a place of some reverence.
All of my favorite artists who inspired me were never afraid to be uncool and never afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves - no matter how much flak they took for it.
As a songwriter and a singer in a successful rock band, I have had the good fortune of being surrounded by incredible musicians, lots of wonderful production on both record and onstage, and plenty of volume!
