Love's a recurring theme through my work.
I always considered trying to make a living playing music. But it was always really clear to me, at the various stages in my life, that it really wasn't a possibility unless some phenomenal thing happened.
I was raised in a Baptist tradition, but then I went to an Episcopalian high school, and they were very accepting of people of all faiths.
As a child, I spent a lot of time at the library.
As a child I always had a sense of social conditions and political situations. I think it had to do with the fact that my mother was always discussing things with my sister and me - also because I read a lot.
I don't try to project any image at all, other than the person that I am.
Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.
That's one of the things I like about San Francisco. It's not like anywhere else in the world.
Maybe it's naive to say, but it almost seems like, in the past, people tried to sell you something you would actually need, like a hammer or a broom or a toothbrush. But now there's this notion that they can sell you anything. And all they have to do is convince you that you need it.
When we started making 'Where You Live', I bought a bunch of Polaroid cameras in so that people could record the experience. Some of those pictures are in the CD sleeve.
Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.
Music was never just a hobby for me. I'd pick up a guitar every day to work on whatever I was writing at the time. I would put my ideas in songs the way some people might put them in diaries or journals.
I don't know - I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.
People's real hopes and dreams can be distorted and misdirected and packaged until you're not sure what you really want or what you even really need.
I'm not sure about anything as far as religion and spirituality go.
I may be revered or defamed and decried; But I tried to live my life right.
After it's finished, sometimes I can trace a path that goes back to the possible source of inspiration.
I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.
I learn all these things about the record talking about it after it's finished.
I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.
