I've been a list maker for years, even before I was a musician. I was always writing things down and kept long lists of things that would make good album titles and things like that. I'm constantly thinking in terms of songwriting.
'Boy,' 'October,' 'War,' 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree,' those records, they're part of my musical DNA and structure.
'Habits & Contradictions' is the prequel to 'Setbacks.' I had all these titles already in my head before I even dropped 'em. Like 'Setbacks,' I knew that was gone be the first one; I knew 'Habits & Contradictions.' I knew 'Oxymoron.' I got two more albums that I already have the title to it, and I know how I'ma play the theme off of it.
The only albums that I have personally named were 'number 5,' 'number 8' and 'number 10.'
On 'Krit Wuz Here,' I had a record called 'Return Of 4eva' on it. And then that launched me into doing the actual 'Return Of 4eva' project, and 'Return Of 4eva' had a song called '4eva And A Day.' So it's like, all of my music has somehow tied into the entire story.
Guru always titled the Gang Starr albums. But once it came to 'Hard to Earn,' he wanted me to title it.
I tend to name albums after one of the songs.
The worst thing is always thinking of titles for records, with some reason behind them, and she just came out with the word, which she thought was a good word, a hard word, and since then we've sort of attached loads of meaning to it.
One of the funniest things about Mr. Kaufman is that all of his filmed scripts - 'Being John Malkovich,' 'Human Nature,' 'Adaptation' and now 'Sunshine' - sound like titles from REM's 'Reckoning.'
Most people don't listen to classical music at all, but to rock-and-roll or hillbilly songs or some album named Music To Listen To Music By.
