I Feel Like There's A Lot Of

Because Of My Age And What I Do For A Living And The Amount Of Time That I've Spent Away From My Family And Loved Ones, I'm Starting To Relate More To The Late-period Kerouac Stuff In The Way That I Once Related To The Fun And Excitement Of The Early Material. There's A Darkness Inside Of Me That I'm Only Now Starting To Come To Grips With And Accept. And It's Starting To Scare Me.

The Story Of Our Band Is That We Were This Relentless Touring Band In Those Early Years. We Were Leaving Day Jobs And Going Off On The Road And Having Fun And Seeing The Country For The First Time. We Were Playing Chinese Restaurants And Basements And Record Stores And Houses. We Were Crashing On Floors And It Was All New And Exciting. It Was Like A Vacation. It Didn't Feel Like Work. I Couldn't Wait To Go On Tour Back Then. I Would Be Sitting At My Day Job Or My Apartment, Just Itching To Go. There Were So Many Adventures That Were About To Happen.

I've Always Had A Soft Spot For Phil Collins. He's A Great Vocalist.

If There Is One Thing I Think I Have Accomplished, It's That I Always Thought Of Myself As A Very Literal Songwriter, And As I Look At Some Of Those Older Records, I Don't Hear It Now The Way I Did When I Was 20. I Think It Is Undeniable That The Songs Have Become More Instantaneously Descriptive And Literal. I'd Like The Songs To Be More Storytelling, But Also Have The Turns Of Phrase Within Them That Would Hopefully Distance My Writing From The Pack. I Feel Like On Those Older Records There Are A Lot Of Attempts At Clever Turns Of Phrase.

You Look Back At A Time You Idealize Now And You Only Remember The Good Stuff. You Tell The Stories About The Hard Stuff And Just Laugh About It Now. You Don't Remember How Difficult It Was To Be Stranded In Austin After Driving 52 Hours From Seattle In A Rainstorm And Having Nowhere To Stay For Five Hours. You Remember That Stuff And Laugh About It Now. You Don't Feel It The Way You Did Back Then When You Were So Scared And Nervous And Tired And Hungry. We Always Idealize The Past Because We Don't Feel The Painful Stuff The Way We Used To.