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" Life is so beautiful, but there are all these scary things you can't deny. "

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" I'm the kind of performer who gets lost on stage. I can tap into this soulful haze. "

" John Prine in particular... just the chord changes combined with the words. He definitely can make you cry a little bit. Just a little bit. "

" That Yo La Tengo record, 'Painful,' has got some real awesome, noisy, mellow heartbreakers. "

" If somebody else wanted to do a song for McDonald's, that's up to them. I wouldn't do something like that, but whatever. "

" I had a really fun time working with the HARRYS guys and their whole crew. "

" Even when I haven't played in a while, I can sit down and start with a chord, and just drop into it. It's like this tunnel I go into. The zone is where I want to live. "

" I like New York. I like Philly. I like San Fran. I like when people are stoked. But Chicago's a real music town, and they're really good to us there. There's just something in the air there; people are just really stoked about music. Every time I go there, I have a great time, and the fandom is really heartwarming. "

" I want really badly to just be funny in a movie but be close to myself. "

" I love polished pop music, but stuff like Neil Young's Crazy Horse vibe or Waylon Jennings, that stuff is raw and real. "

" I find that I get nervous before I play. Even sound checks can give me anxiety and screw with my mind. But as long as I can play a little acoustic guitar backstage if I'm feeling nervous, so I don't have to walk in there cold turkey, I'll be fine. "

" A lot of getting a song done is booking the studio time. "

" I feel like my music is like - there are always new influences in there. "

" I walk around a lot. People come up to me and say 'Hi,' but not that often. I mean, I get it plenty often, but sometimes I wish they'd come up to me more! I mean, I'm just a regular guy. "

" I feel like if you sit down and have an assistant engineer and a producer in a top-notch studio and everyone sets up all the mikes perfect, all of a sudden it's really hard to live that melancholy song. It's hard to really live it in the moment. "

" When I write, I tend to tap into this human wondering vibe that could come off negative, but it's really not. "

" I've always been a music fan. I played trumpet. When I was in 4th grade, we were getting demos from the music teacher about different instruments we could play, and I said I wanted to play the trumpet right away. It was easy: it just had three valves. "

" Anybody that's from somewhere that's made it in music outside of New York or L.A., if it's a unique enough place, they'll always say, 'Dude's from Minnesota!' Or wherever, you know? So that's how I got the Philly connection. "

" I'm not cynical, but the reality is that life is mortal. Terrible, sad things happen. Everybody loses friends and family. I'll be on tour and get really scared if my wife won't answer her phone within one minute. I'm sensitive. "

" On one level, we're on Matador, but our amps still might explode on stage, or they'll be an echo in the mic. It's like climbing a ladder. I like to climb it really slowly. I could probably get really professional right away, but I like to take baby steps and find my own way. "

" I think if you just travel in general, it allows you to step outside of yourself and whatever you're familiar with. "

" I definitely have relapses of stress. Most human beings are like that. But I think, ultimately, music is a therapeutic situation. Once you start playing, it all just gets resolved. "

" I got depressed so many times by my blue-collar life and self-conscious about the fact that I didn't go to college. I was always working super low-end jobs, being the complete opposite of what I wanted to be. "

" Philly's busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It's a place where people pass through and bands don't usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources, but it's not too over the top. "

" I go in and out of mental funks all the time 'cause it comes with the territory. "

" There's so many ways you can play one chord progression that the repetition isn't ever exactly the same. "

" That's one of my favorite Matador records: Cat Power, 'You Are Free.' "

" I've developed this routine at home. I wait for the kids to go to bed; then my wife falls asleep. Then, it's dark and quiet enough for me to work on songs. "

" All of my surroundings influence my songwriting. It's autobiographical, although I leave enough space so it's relatable. "

" I really love that 'I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One' Yo La Tengo record a lot. "

" I'll know when a song's really awesome, for sure, and I get super stoked, and I'm so high when I'm hearing it back, but then you sit with the record forever. You're mixing it, and you can really just over-think everything. "