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I started playing music at a pretty young age.
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I actually am always a music first person.
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So, once I've written a song, you know, I'm pretty happy with what the song is on its own terms.
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Lately I've been a workaholic. I'm in the studio all the time and I've helped to produce a couple of artists.
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Because of my Buddhist practice, I'm never lacking for inspiration.
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I'm a pretty big P.J. Harvey record fan and you can really hear New York in his record.
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Ultimately, if I'm really moved by something, it's going to go on the record and that's that.
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But I can't really say there is too much modern music that I'm blown away by at this moment.
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I wouldn't say that I've had a tough life by any stretch of the imagination.
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The difficult thing about a pop record is that you're given guidelines: it has to have 3 choruses, and then it must be between 3 minutes fifteen seconds and three minutes forty-five seconds.
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I mean, at the end of the day when I'm making a record, what I want to do is what I do.
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I also wanted to make a record that was about other things than romance, yeah, after two years on the road singing all the songs from the first album, I got kind of tired of that.
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My second record was all about big ideas - I was trying to make big statements about the culture, about life. I think in a certain way, I was a 27 year old kid with a guitar.
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I feel fortunate about being able to make the music I want to make and getting away with it.
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Simon Hale, the British arranger, does all string and wood arrangements on my records.
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If I were to do this over I'd play a lot more shows before I made a record.
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I'm fortunate I have this coterie of musicians around me to help take music to next level. Being surrounded by so much creative energy, so many creative people really feeds that creativity in me.
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I make the kind of music I like.
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Things come to me pretty regularly. There is never a shortage or a backlog.
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I actually think sadness and darkness can be very beautiful and healing.
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I privilege the music over the lyrics.
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I try to make sure that the Buddhism is more or less implicit in the music rather than explicit.
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A real foolproof way to do it is play your stuff by hook or by crook and build up a grass roots following.
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Happy music doesn't tend to move me much.