For the most part I stand by all of records. I just always like the one I’ve done most recently the best and I think that’s the whole point.

Melody is king. Songs are ruled by melody. I believe that melody, more than lyrics, is what does all the heavy lifting emotionally. When I write lyrics, or when I adapt a poem to a song, my goal is to interfere as little as possible with whatever spell is being cast by the melody. At the same time, I hope, at best, that the words enhance the song somehow, add meaning or clarify and underline what the melody is making me feel.

Avant-garde is the one area of music that has never changed. It doesn’t mean anything.

Allowing something you’ve created to be undermined to a point where you can no longer believe in it or stand behind it feels suicidal to me.

I like making songs up. Whether or not they’re great songs or good songs, whatever. It’s something I’ve always done, and I definitely feel like I’ve gotten better at it.

Even when I don’t think I’m writing, I’m writing. There’s some part of my brain geared toward making songs up, and I know it’s collecting things and I know when I get a moment to be by myself, that’s when they come out.

Music is most magical when everyone can lose the burden of self and be put back together as a part of something bigger, or other. I think of it as egos blending, singer into musician into listener. Something like that feels right to me. Anyway, it’s something worth aiming for.

Writing songs has always been hard and easy. It’s not always easy when you want it to be, and then sometimes it’s just like turning on the faucet. That’s just the nature of it.

It’s rooted in things that maybe older people or people my age remember as being rock music. But at the same time, I don’t think we’re stuck in the past or retro. I think we’ve tried to push ourselves and experiment with what we can call Wilco music.

I don’t really feel like you’re making a record unless you pay attention to it.