I like people that can strap on a guitar and don't sweat the fact that you have to come up with a song in an hour. I want to work with someone who won't feel like they have to play along with Jason Molina. I want them to just have the confidence.
I feel a lot of guilt about the freedom that being an artist provides. I ask myself, 'Why am I not the guy emptying the trash, why am I the guy who is watching the guy empty the trash?'
The consistency - either the theme from record to record, or the band, the different musicians - it really varies. So if I get criticism, I don't worry about that, because I'm still being creative.
I try to be of the world, rather than just observing it.
I don't listen to a lot of music; I write more music than I listen to, for sure.
From a guy that still doesn't have his foot in the world, I feel pretty grounded as long as I have music.
I believe in doing vinyl. As long as vinyl can still be made into a high-quality standard, I'm going to still make all my records as a side A and a side B because that's how I grew up listening to music.
I try to do collaborations with as many artists as possible. It's really excellent and fun to actually work with another songwriter.
When I write a record, I don't even touch a computer. I don't even bring my cell phone.
These people who have everything at their disposal as far as cash and connections, I think they just get so mired in the business side of things that they don't just sit at home and record records. Anybody can do that.
I really enjoy recording right after a tour. We're tired, but the songs are really lived in by then.
I always lived by railroads, and I would find places to just look at the horizon, and I always expected there was something somewhere else. And sometimes I think that's more a metaphysical somewhere else rather than just to get out of the town.
In songwriting, I needed language. And I always believed in singing about what I do.
I write about eight hours a day, and I throw away most of what I write.
As a city, Chicago really affords me an environment that I am really happy creating in. It's an easy place to live in a lot of ways; it's a great community to be making music in.
At times, I will get in the studio and force myself to just write an entire front-to-back record, and 'Let Me Go' is one of these.
