In my perfect world, I get to be a professional musician and still go to Trader Joe's.
So, I'll walk around with - just an iPhone will work - but sometimes I'll bring, like, a little mobile recorder and I'll just, like, if hear an interesting sound, I'll just record it. And then later, I'll listen through them and I'll go like, 'I wonder how can I use that?'
I'm a big believer in the benefit of a home studio. You're sitting there and maybe you don't know the next line. So you go outside for a second, maybe. Make a sandwich. Play with the dog. Or watch an episode of 'The Office,' whatever. And then it clicks, you run back into the room, and you've got it. It's not like your creativity is on the clock.
When we are making a song for Billie I want it to resonate and speak the truth with her and want it to be a piece of fabric she can wear.
To me, my favorite joke on a stand-up special is when someone says something and you go, 'Oh my God, I've been thinking that my whole life, I've just never said it to anyone else.' Those little kinda quiet, personal observations you make that nobody else has talked about yet.
I don't particularly like recording studios, they tend to be lifeless and without any natural light, so I wanted to record wherever we lived. We just don't want to be bound to a studio to who we'd have to pay untold sums to.
You know, I grew up very self-taught.
A lot of the time, in pop music especially, there's reverb. And the reason is that reverb makes vocals sound better 99% of the time. It makes the notes ring out.
I remember, one time, my dad took me and Billie to a fair. I was probably 7 years old, Billie must have been 3, and she put footie pyjamas on and then put a second pair of underwear on over the pyjamas. I remember being like, 'What is Billie wearing?!' and my dad was like, 'She's happy with it. Let's go!'
If you can use songs as a tool, vehicle for empathy and a deeper understanding of how people are feeling and how people's emotions work, there's a lot of good that can come from that.
The excuse of having a dog is great, because before I had a dog, I wouldn't be like, 'I need to go hike for two hours'; my girlfriend would have been like, 'What are you doing?' Now I take the dog, and she comes with me.
I'm not a control freak in that like I boss everybody around, but like a control freak and like, I like knowing exactly what I get to do that day and having a say.
I think it's really easy to be the altruistic hero of your own narrative and story.
Usually, I get bored of my stuff almost immediately.
You go to a truck stop and there are key chains with names on them, and there's no Finneas. There's no Billie. They're little things, but as a kid, you just feel weirdly ostracized.
I mainly try to foster long-term collaborative relationships.
All my favorite songs ever are love songs. Probably topped by 'The Luckiest' by Ben Folds.
If you're paying attention and you've been a good listener, you learn every day.
I have always loved Ben Folds, he's like an idol of mine, a hero of mine.
Being able to hear an artist and emulate them has been a huge part of being successful as a producer and co-writer. I think it's a problem when a producer comes in to work with an artist, and you can't hear the artist as well anymore. It's very important to me to be invisible.
