"Escapism or nostalgia, for me, is not about having a terrible life and trying to get away via imaginary ideas or something."
"I'm very happy in my life, but I do feel that music has a power to transport you to places or to beautiful moments in your past."
"One of the great things about music is how it can take you places."
"My parents live out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of this peach orchard. It's actually Peach County, one of the largest peach-growing counties in Georgia. It's very rural, and there is nothing much going on, so I guess that's had a big influence on everything as far as just not having much to do."
"I do try to structure everything in a way that's very much like a pop song. I try to keep the arrangements really simple, just to make everything essential."
"I want people to make sense of what I'm talking about."
"Over a year's time, I felt like I squeezed in five years of touring experience, which was a really huge help moving forward."
"I don't think I would change anything. I think we've done a fairly good job of remaining sane and making the right decisions."
"I personally love the record-making more than the actually performing and travelling. It's funny, the drastic shift in lifestyle that comes with it. It certainly satisfies my more adventurous side, but it leaves little time for contemplation and all of that."
"I never want to make a complete, 180 reactional record. I wanted a connection to what I've done in the past but still move forward and evolve."
"I get very bored easily. I'm a child of the Internet or whatever; I want more and more of new and interesting things."
"Ultimately, what interests me is using exotic sounds in my songs."
"There are things I can accomplish in the studio via manipulation on the computer or some kind of effect that are nearly impossible to do live. On the flip side, there are some things that happen live that can't be pulled off in the studio."
"I definitely enjoy the kind of magic that happens being on stage with a group when everything's working. The vibe when that's happening gets even better if the audience is involved and you can feel that interaction. That's something you don't get with your headphones on in a studio; it's much different."
"For the most part, the real work is done in the songwriting stage and recording; the next step is presenting to people."
"I've always, in some way, incorporated sampling into my work."
"I normally start at the computer with something really simple like a four-bar loop of a drum sample or a bass line. And then I just start adding layers of synthesizers."
"I just make up lyrics off the top of my head. A lot of times, there's a phrase I really like, and I kind of build the song around that."
"When I look back at the record and listen to it, I can sort of see where I was at when I was making it - these brief little moments, different places I was at emotionally."
"I was definitely the kid in the back of the class with his head down the whole time not wanting to speak up and say anything."
"I definitely enjoy my time by myself - and that's kind of the weird thing about touring; you're kind of constantly surrounded by people - but I actually do enjoy going out and doing things and being around people."
"I have a little basement studio set up here at my house, and I do probably 80 percent of the recording here on my own. With multi-tracking technology, I can play various parts on top of one another."
"I took piano lessons when I was really young, like five years old, and I didn't really enjoy that very much. It was kind of too strict. So when I was probably 11 or 12, I started playing guitar and just kind of taught myself."
"The way I work is by infinitely playing a very simple loop over and over, and then I start layering things."
"When you work this intensely on something, the recording process becomes a bit like cabin fever. I shut everything out and, for a while, I totally lost perspective. To an outsider, I imagine the whole recording process sounds like torture."
