I live like a scumbag, but it's cheap.

Perfectionist? Thats not something I am.

I like a lot of west coast stuff like Aerial Pink.

When you're growing up, you just take what you've got.

I'm terrible at collaborating with people; nothing ever ends up coming out good.

Connan Mockasin from New Zealand. I met him a little while ago, I love his music.

Once a song comes out, these songs aren't mine. They're everybody's. So there you go.

I mean, Manhattan is cool. But weird parts, I like that. Jamaica, Queens, that's great.

I think recording at home feels more organic, and injects some more personality into the music.

I have a lot of friends that I'd like to shout out but I don't think anyone will know who they are.

I'll probably have to open a recording studio at some point because I won't be able to pay the bills.

I'm just being myself. I'm not a very complex guy; I'm not a very studious, crazy intellectual guy. I'm just a guy.

[Making music] only turned into this weird job in the last year or so. Once I figured that out, I was having a blast.

Neil Young is the prime example, the grand goal, if you will. He's still shredding, and he never lost his credibility.

Regardless of how funny I want to be, I don't ever have a problem speaking from my heart or speaking honestly to people.

I've never done an album in the same place really - I like to be able to remember where I did every single one of them .

Journalists say my music is "blue wave," or "dreamy," or "jangly-slacker jewel," and none of it really makes sense to me.

I'm going to try to do music for the rest of my life, but that's just trying. Maybe it's not going to work out. Who knows?

I hate living in a really small apartment, living in a shoebox, not being able to play the drums, not having space. It sucks.

Going on tour, you don't have a lot of time to mull things over. You're just kind of, "Another beer, another show, another song."

It was weird [touring with them]. It felt more like we were playing for Phoenix. They asked us because they're fans of what we do.

[Juan Wauters] got the tips for Queens because he grew up there.So him and my roommate, Matt Volz, they hooked me up, New York Style.

I take making music seriously, but you have to have a sense of humor about yourself. I invite people into my life. That's how I do it.

Patience is important, and also, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. But if you do, do. That's a general rule in how I live my life.

I'm not very good at playing piano, so I usually hit chords with my right hand. And those chords came, and I was just singing a little bit.

I was having a good time before, but you grow up after a couple years and realize, "I can't get drunk like this every night." Things change.

It's so crazy with the Internet and being able to play shows to people who are actually interested in you. I feel so lucky when that happens.

I'm getting paid to tour and travel and I don't have to work a shitty job. And it's weird because you like start getting pissed off about that.

I never liked living in Montreal. And I don't really like the music scene there. It was never my cup of tea, and I never felt like I ever fit in.

I don't have that much experience in the studio, but I'm always really uncomfortable when I'm there. You're on the clock and it costs a lot of money.

I like guitar. It just turned out that it's the instrument I learned to play. I have a lot of respect for it and I'm learning more and more everyday.

When you play a guitar for a long time, you get your hand oils in there; it starts feeling good and behaving, and you just don't want to mess with that.

I recorded this album in a windowless room in Brooklyn by myself. I think Chamber of Reflection sums the album up better than Salad Days to tell you the truth.

I don't necessarily like wearing lipstick; I just think it's funny to do. I think the darker the better, but it's whatever my girlfriend Kiera has in her purse.

I mean it was weird. But Phoenix watched us every night. But it's like they're not even a band, they're like a corporation. They bring a staff of like 40 people.

I think people do expect something a little weird to happen. Maybe they've seen something I did once on the Internet and expect that I'm gonna do that every night.

If I feel like I'm going too far in one direction, I just can it. It's a weird thing. Some of my songs might be cheesy; I try and keep it light. It's hard to explain.

I'd probably describe my sense of humor as 'twisted,' I guess. It's not hard to make me laugh, especially when I'm surrounded by my close friends, especially my bandmates.

My grandma did opera singing for the better part of her life; she used to sing all over the place. My grandpa was a sax player, and he used to travel all over the place, too.

When people think of someone being prolific, it's like, 'He's got a vault with 5,000 songs in it,' or something, but I just kind of pick them out of the air when they float by.

At the time I was writing the second album, I was sitting home in my underwear all day every day; I didn't have all that much to write about except for my own life and my family.

I thought I knew Elton John, but then it was like, "Woah, Elton's a pimp! He's really amazing." And since Billy and Elton are homies, I'm finally getting it - the two piano boys.

I lived in Brooklyn for a year and I moved out to Rockaway Beach. I've been living here for two years now. I put my address on the album, so I have a lot of visitors all the time.

[ If I wasn't making music ] I'd probably end up going to school, I never went to school. Or just give up and get my plumber's ticket and move back to Edmonton and become an alcoholic.

You kind of have to be like " What have you been working the last five years for? Why are you complaining?" It's essentially me talking myself out of being a crybaby indie rock butthead.

I'm a pretty easygoing person, and it bleeds into the music. Even if I'm writing the most personal song, it's not going to come out totally serious; there's always a little tongue in the cheek.

I didn't want to play music because the whole family did it. I wanted to work in a cubicle. I saw Office Space as a young tween and missed the point of the movie. I was like, "This looks good!".

I don't care about what people might call my style. It's just like when people call my music 'jangly,' 'dream,' 'oceanside,' whatever - I don't care. I'm just wearing whatever I can scrap together.

That's kind of the weird thing about Salad Days. I had to block time off from touring and tell my management and label like no press, no nothing. Let me make an album. You guys are running me dead.

Their [Phoenix] audience wasn't into us at all. The way most of the venues worked was there was no alcohol on the floor so usually during our set most people were in the lobby getting their drink on.

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