“Most of the bands that I really like no longer exist. That might just be because I’m in my thirties or whatever. But I also think it’s the rare band that doesn’t, like, turn into something else.”

Touring is really a weird social experiment, even though everyone thinks it’s a party every day.

My father was a psychiatrist and a social worker but he was a very talented painter and musician and writer on the side.

I like the model of people getting together to make something when they want to do it and not being dictated to by a cycle.

I want to be around these positive, expressive people who are doing something different and who also want to get the hell out of there and don’t want to be around basic human bullshit.

Painting and animation can be kind of long work. Music was more immediate and more fun.

The cynicism doesn’t come across in the final; it can be taken as a very sincere plea for someone to not go away.

There was something in me, even leaving fifth grade, that hit me and said, “I have to get out of here. I don’t know where, and I don’t know what else I can do but I’m really not going to end up like any of these people.”

Ten years is a pretty good run for anything.

I’ve had terrible, terrible, terrible shows where I just thought, “That was off-key” or I forgot lines or I thought I looked like an idiot, and then you’re leaving and talking to people, and they’re like, “I had the best time of my life! That was amazing!” You just never know.

There are people who kind of let you know that you can silence the room.

I was living in a loft with Dave Sitek – this loft full of people just working on their stuff. Some were painting, some were writing. Any plans you had were kind of like a plan for the next two months.

You have to be a really talented writer if you’re trying to encapsulate a news story with a song and have it live after the event. I don’t have the focus to do that, really.

A lot of people have reunion things, but I think bands are supposed to break up.

I feel like now if you’re going to start a band you have to have an Instagram full of yourself looking a certain way, lined up like five dudes in mugshot alley, hanging out by the bridge or up against the wall, or “We’re in a library for some reason!”

There are a lot of spikes that can happen when what you’re doing starts to get attention or people start to talk about it. They can just kind of really do a number on your reasons for making music.

You turn into this desperate dude looking for a shred of attention when you just had so much. It’s like, “I’m just lonely and all I really want is a hug, but I gotta capture that in something real gross.” You start to understand why circus clowns are alcoholics.

We just wanted to get as far away from the rap-rock scene as possible, because its been done and other bands do it better than us anyway.

When you start getting into a full-band, democratic context the little things almost immediately get thrown out the window because you don’t think they’re important.

People always – when you rise, whenever you’re getting to a point where you’re a very big band, which is a very rare thing, there are always going to be people that aren’t going to like you.

I’m my own worst critic and I think everyone in the band is a perfectionist.

You wouldn’t be a complete band without a slightly cocky frontman, would you?

I’m a bass player from way back and Paul is a guitar player and we’ve been in many bands.

As far as the grunge thing, there are three bands from Seattle that I would call true grunge.

You can’t just listen to The Smiths anymore. But then there are plenty of people that do only listen to five bands and six albums and that’s it.