Anyone who's followed our band through the years has heard about the teenage angst.
This is my home. Home is where the disease is. As long as I stay in America, I'll never run out of subjects for songs.
Break-up albums are the best kind.
I think most music provides the same messages - whether it be 'I'm unhappy' or 'I love a girl.' I just liked the package of rap music.
I suppose that Heartland, Unknown Soldier and Pride and Joy represent not a quieter side but more of a serious side to my work, something I've been getting into recently.
All of my favourite albums have this incredible amount of conceptual glue to them, even if they are not telling a story.
You don't always have to sing dark things to be thoughtful.
I believe that music is another form of news. Music is another form of journalism to me so I have to cover all the areas with my album.
I feel that people really feel they've got a part of me when they listen to my albums and the themes just show themselves.
Social topics may hit too close to home for people, but then again, if you pull a heartstring, then that's what country music is. It's not just songs about getting drunk and leaving your girl.
Surely there are enough Celtic songs without introducing religion or politics or anything else.
I've never believed that pop music is escapist trash. There's always a darkness in it, even amidst great pop music.
There are five things to write songs about: I'm leaving you. You're leaving me. I want you. You don't want me. I believe in something. Five subjects, and 12 notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well.
My original project was called 'The Wheel'; there's a record out there called 'Desire & The Dissolving Man,' 'The Memory Of Loss' as well. There's also 'Falling Faster Than You Can Run,' also 'Closer'; all of that's on our website.
Songwriters, we're always looking for new concepts, fresh concepts, and there are only so many ways you can talk about partying, really.
I do ballads that say what every man wants to say and that every woman wants to hear, or I do songs about social issues.
I've never written a happy love song.
My first album, 'Englaborn,' was based on music originally written for the theatre. My solo albums, like 'IBM 1401, a User's Manual' and 'Fordlandia,' have also had narratives attached to them.
I think that's a big trope in pop music: the blaze-of-glory breakup. It's not one that I particularly identify with, but it's definitely possible.
I'm totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music. Some of the themes she writes about are stuff I wish was there for me when I was in high school, and I'm so happy she really cares about her female fans. She's not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls.
I love arranging my music, not in alphabetical order but by mood, creating playlists for when I have energy and want to work out or go-out party mixes and music to chill out to.
Before many black singers were still labouring under that problem of God; it was often 'God will save us'. But right through the blacks were singing directly and immediately about their pain and also about sex, which is why I like it.
American folk songs were about tragedy, right? They were about suffering and tragedy, and a lot of my songs are about that, even though they were misunderstood.
I often have an argument with people. I say name me a classic song that's not sad in some kind of way. And even if you can, you'll have to search pretty far.
All my characters have playlists.
