TAYLOR GOLDSMITH

Books look handsome and it's a real singular experience getting to go to a bookstore. I don't want to not do that.

If what you do for a living is play drums or bass, then that defines you. You don't want to be some guy missing notes here and there; you want to really speak with it.

When we made 'North Hills,' I had never heard Warren Zevon, and I never heard the Grateful Dead. I had never heard of Jackson Browne.

Growing up, even finding all those notes that you write in first grade to your future self of like what you want to be when you grow up - it was always music.

Dawes is a rock 'n' roll band playing guitars, writing songs, working in a certain tradition. Through our attitude and personality, I hope, you can hear a song and go, 'That's a Dawes song.'

I feel like a lot of artists, when they're on their fourth record, they're perceived as the old guys. At least in this day and age. I like that people perceive us as just getting started because that's how we perceive ourselves.

I write these songs and I like the idea of letting the band interpret it as they will. This band is like any band; it's not just me. This isn't just a way for me to play my songs. There are four distinct artistic voices, and they deserve to be expressed.

Unfortunately it's easy to just label us as part of a Laurel Canyon sound. What we try to do is to be unique.

I've always been a little more narrative, a little more linear, a little more direct. People instantly want to classify that as something retro. It's just a way of writing songs.

When people do, or say, things we don't believe in, forgiveness can feel disgusting. But when you try to think of someone who isn't worthy of it, it's hard to find an example.

I actually like social media, and I recognize what modern technology serves.

We're thrilled to play an offbeat place. Our music fits with it. I love playing unusual venues.

I read actual books. It's cool to read on a Kindle if that's what you want to do, but for me, I like having a bookshelf.

But when you're six records deep, every record has one or two songs that need to be in every set, so you're already looking at 12 songs that you know you're going to play.

Sometimes songwriting can turn into a gossip column, and I try to avoid that as much as I can.

You write a song; you know what you want it to sound like. With a band like ours, it's more about the collective. It's important everyone feels expressed and represented.

When you see a Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty or Jackson Browne show, the impression you get is that you'd love to have a beer with them. That's the image they project.

Well, I think at first, songs were sort of the vehicle which allowed me to be on the stage and get to hold a guitar and get to sing.

I think that there's a singular emotion that goes along with what the bands that we love mean to us. I feel like people feel represented by that in a way that you don't get from saying, 'Oh, I like this book' or 'I went to college here' or 'This is what my job is.'

When we were putting together 'One Of Us,' we were just following our impulses and what felt good.

A song like 'Telescope' was about a friend of mine. He doesn't know it's about him.

When we record a song, like 'Bedside Manner,' it's important that the next time I write a somber, mid-tempo song that we don't treat it the same way.

Like for me, it's funny that I have ended up in so many side projects because I have always looked at any song that I write as a Dawes song.

That the longer you can work and stay in people's peripherals, the more likely folks might be to acknowledge you and know that you're there.

I wasn't really much of a reader early on, but when I first started getting into reading at around 16 all I could really read was Kurt Vonnegut books.