We were big Clash fans, you know, big Who fans and I think we would listen to this music and talk about music and do nothing but music night and day, and when it came time to actually making our own music, you feel compelled to sort of tuck all those influences away, not show them.

Within the Universal deal, we've always felt like an independent act. We've never been told what to do. We've used their resources to our own design.

In the past, when you were just starting out, you had a day and a half of studio time - maybe two, if your buddy's uncle lets you stay.

Being a dad, and being in a rock band, it's harder than it looks. But we tried. And we try.

If we weren't in this band, some of us wouldn't be playing at all. You have tiffs with someone when he has smelly feet in the touring van, but we all respect each other as friends first.

If you want to know what being Canadian is, it's being part of the human race, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, which has been scared off, warded away, girded against.

I'm agile.

To become a country, and truly call ourselves Canada, it means we must become one.

Canadians can be funny.

Music brings people together. So my function in anything I do is to help bring people closer in.

I haven't written too many political lyrics. Nor have I written any pro-Canada lyrics, any kind of jingoistic, nationalistic cant... That stuff doesn't interest me and I don't even know if I could write that if I tried because I don't really feel it.

I always like to have a glimmer of hopefulness, even in collapse.

I've always liked R.E.M. because, like so many things I like, they exude a warmth; I like to think that we do, too.

Even as a kid, I don't think I bought into a lot of the mythology about Canada.

Life's too short for bad coffee.

I think the health of our water is tied to a lot: the health of our communities, hence our economy, the health of our basic human rights.

We used to tie a skipping rope to a pitchfork and try to spear big carp. We never got one. My kids love that story, very 'Lord of the Flies.'

If I'm to be an 'ist' then, like Bobby Kennedy, I'm probably more of a free market capitalist than an environmentalist. Rather than wanting to tell people to be less bad, I'm saying let's make it fair across the board and stop subsidizing the big heavy-polluting fat cats, let's make it a level playing field.

Ultimately with our band, it's word of mouth. It seems to be the largest cause of The Hip outbreak - if we can align ourselves with a virus.

I stand in support of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and all Canadians who find themselves with no voice in our present version of democracy, who are trying to come up with the entry fee that gets them a seat at the table where their pollution future is being discussed.

Bob Rock taught me a lot. His friendship has taught me a lot about what you should expect from a recording session and, more importantly, how you shouldn't expect anything less than absolute joyousness. You should feel great. You should feel 14 to be doing it. It's true and it's rare.

I guess I want people to see me and to try to explain myself, and you don't always get the chance. Sometimes you don't get the chance and maybe no one ever gets the chance to really explain themselves, to have people see them. But I guess I'm doing that or I'm in the process of doing that.

When we watch dance, the artists and the audience are part of a momentary collective experience that will never happen again.

I'm grateful for the friendships and being able to show it, for people's dancing pleasure.

I think you have to show people it's cool and fun to work together. It's your obligation. If you can't do it, who can you expect to do it?

We're a band. We're hired for parties. We have to know what to do.

Nobody ever asks me about my lyrics.

I have no illusions of the future. Or maybe it's all illusion. I don't know. I've always been ready for it.

When I'm in front of a crowd, I don't think 'Oh, there's some hard-core metalheads and some alternative fringe types, so we should be okay.'

Even 'The Inevitability of Death' is kind of a funny song more than anything. I mean, I thought it would be funny imagining radio deejays cueing it up and announcing it as people are driving off to work.

We were interested in making a long career out of this, rather than being 'Canada's Newest Hitmakers.' It seems to work, and it trickles down to every aspect of the band.

I enjoy making and creating things.

I work a couple of hours a day with a guitar or pushing words around, so over time I have a lot of material, so I don't get into this feast-or-famine situation.

You have to - you have to allow something to tell you what it wants to be.

You sort of get so lulled into thinking of yourself as this five-headed thing, the group, the band, The Hip. I guess you just forget it's a family, and like every good family, you can forget. But you're also committed to each other, so there's always room to grow, to learn and relearn.

I'm just a student. I'm learning all the time, and, like anyone, I'm just looking for words I can use and a hummable melody.

I write lyrics. putting words and melodies to my songs. That's a real challenge, I take it on vigorously.

I come to America because if you're a rock 'n' roll musician you should come here every chance you get.

I kind of love walking around with something nobody else knows about in my back pocket.

A live album is a no-brainer.