“Fans keep us healthy, keep us not so insular. Through contact with them we learn things. It's strange even hearing that word, fans. I don't think of them as fans. Or else, I am a fan too. We try to blur the distinction between performer and onlooker. We want a direct communication.”
“The change is something organic that has happened. We used to play very quietly because we would be playing in a cafe or in someone's front room or a library. We would be drawing people in, playing gentler to capture people's attention. That works up to a certain amount of people, maybe 700 or 800. But after that it didn't work at all.”
“We want to be able to do everything. We want to be able to play a big rock song and then play 'The Fox in the Snow.' We want to be able to take them up and bring 'em down. We just want to be the best group that we can be.”
“Stuart was insisting (we contribute songs), which I thought was a pretty disastrous idea. The first couple of records were very self-contained worlds with a style that was all their own. It struck me as being insane to muddle what was so distinctive in the first place. I thought there would be a decline in quality. And I think there was.”
“Actually, it's just the opposite. Stuart is still the main guy, obviously, but he now draws more from the group than ever. In the old days, people would come in with their finished songs. Now, everyone in the group contributes ideas ? a chord sequence or a riff or a rhythm or anything.”
“We did pre-production for the first time. He listened to the songs and made suggestions on structure and other things. We're such control freaks, we never let anyone hear anything in the past. But when we recorded, we were prepared ? we tried really hard to nail every part, every vocal, every guitar. And I think that lends it a certain urgency.”
“This definitely is an unusual gig for us. It's all about trying to reach more people. The shows are short, which makes it kind of different. I guess we're just going to fire off a few fast ones.”
