For the first time in evolution as a species, we're hitting an energy ceiling.
Playing to a stadium is not for everyone because you are essentially gambling, big-time. You have to go all in on production. You can't hold back.
Apple, iTunes, and streaming services have made the single a more easy thing to access. What that's done has made the album as a collection of songs almost meaningless. But an album that has a concept or story or reason to be an album, if anything, has more meaning now than it ever has.
I don't totally buy or believe the paradigm that's constantly presented to us and the financial news is obsessed with, which is growth. There seems to be this paradigm which is: There has to be growth. I'm watching it and thinking, am I the only one who recognises this is a small planet isolated in a gigantic universe? Where are we growing to?
I used to go and see bands like the Orb and Orbital every time they came down, and I've seen Aphex Twin a couple of times. I was really into all that stuff, but it didn't speak to me.
I've got my interests and my life experiences as I'm putting lyrics together. And if you start looking at patterns, you start thinking, 'Well, what am I really singing about here?' A lot of it seems to be a battle for some freedom against oppressive forces. That seems to be a theme in a lot of the albums I've done.
I have been lucky to experience a lot of the spoils that can happen in a rock band. But being with the three guys in this band from such a young age, we aren't going to let any of the spoils change us.
The universe, in a big bang mode, is still expanding, which means it's cooling down, and evolution seems to be going against this; we're almost battling it. That led me on to a more creative, philosophical way of thinking, which is what led into influencing some of the songs, which is, maybe this is what our struggle is.
I do think if all politicians were women, the world would be a better place.
I'm a songwriter; it's in my nature to express things openly.
The best band in the world is Queen, definitely.
Rachmaninov has some kind of weird dark edge to his music which I don't think I've heard with any other kind of music before.
This inner strength we have, this desire to evolve and expand and explore, I do love that about humanity. At the same time, it's scary what it does on a global scale. I'm very much caught between the two.
I don't think our records contain obvious humour. We're not cracking gags.
'Uprising' was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies, and we turned them down on a regular basis.
The guitar has become a textural instrument rather than a lead instrument. And I think that's probably a good thing.
I always go for walks in the countryside.
There's always been a slight twinge of some classical elements in our music.
In the U.S., the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the Right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward rightwing libertarianism.
I think that's what a lot of writers do, create a totally fantastical scenario that is a reflection of something else going on in their life.
