I want to make sure people know I don't think I have any magic powers. I just have a story that I share.

I think any real one-sheet for an album would say, 'Well, here's what I've been doing.' And that would be it.

Once you start talking to people, you find out there's a lot more wrestling fans than you think there are.

It's not my style to be thinking about what a record is while I'm making it: I just write songs.

I got a promo of 'Nichts Muss' in what would have been 2002 or 2003 and fell totally in love with it after listening to it on an airplane that took me to Australia via Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.

Sometimes I do 'So Desperate' solo in the middle of the set. I really love to sing that song.

If you show up to work five days in a row, nobody's going to pat you on the back - everyone does that. Well, do that with your writing. Just show up. Be there for it. When you get an idea, write it down somewhere and then be a steward of that idea.

The more established you are, the less likely you are to do something ridiculous, which is one reason I'm proud to put out a wrestling album. If you stop and you go, 'Well, what if people don't like it?,' if you're already established in what you do, that'll strike fear into your heart.

I used to break three or four strings a night, and the show would be over because I didn't know how to change the strings.

Touring is just not normal for me. My personality is to never ever talk to people if I can help it.

Most of my interests in terms of writing are dark, so it's discordant how much I try to lock into the vibe of wherever I'm at. Inhabiting the life of the imagination is the nature of survival strategy - you build yourself little worlds to enjoy.

I hang out and sign records for an hour or two hours every night, and I like to hear as many people's stories as I can, because if somebody wants to share their story with me, I want to honor that.

I am permanently a student of people who make great songs, but besides sort of learning by absorption, I just love listening to music, hearing what's going on, hearing new things or new old things.

People like to say how much they like stuff, but with 'The Sunset Tree,' people shared stories about what it meant for them. And that stuff's so humbling and amazing.

I always worry that I'm a dilettante: I know something about lots of things but don't have exhaustive knowledge of much.

You want the song to be at least at the same level of goodness throughout. Whereas with something you're doing live, a song dips and rises and that can actually be worked to the song's benefit.

My songs tend to sprint toward some epiphany and then explode.

I think 'The Sunset Tree' is really the album on which I really learned to trust other musicians, which is so important.

'Heel Turn 2' is about a person who's in a match, and he's playing as though the match were real. But it is real! If you're standing in the middle of a ring, and you're playing the villain, and everyone is booing and throwing things at you, that's real.

I used to assume no one would care, but I do think now I've written songs that are useful to people having dark hours.

The best ones - Hulk Hogan believes in Hulkamania. It's not a thing he's selling here. It's real. He knows it's real because he goes to the Mall Of America and everybody goes insane, right? Wrestling is real. Those characters are real.

Readings are more like weaving a tapestry. Possibly people are getting a cathartic release - but music is physical. Music pummels you. It's got a beat; it's loud. Whereas this is more cerebral.

I still can't manage to keep a journal, and people have been telling me to since the fourth grade.

I think I am a religious person just by nature. I think I sort of view everything through the lens of some inner undying thing in people that drives them to act as they do or to feel ashamed of not acting in some other way.