I can finish a show and walk through the audience without being recognized.

Now, when I have a four-string that I take on the road with me, it's a regular Martin. I bought a decent Martin with a pickup in it, and then I just take off the strings and have four strings on it.

For me, it's hard to enter any situation with people where we're considering everyone equals, because I bring all of this massive baggage into anything that I do, preconceptions of my work. That's a lot for the people that I might be bringing along with me to bear.

When I was a teenager, my mom got me a really nice baritone ukulele.

I've always tried to make music for someone who's never heard anything I've ever done.

I like all the obnoxious Eagles stuff that just drives people crazy. I love 'Life In The Fast Lane' and 'Hotel California.'

My family is the epicenter of my life.

I had a very strong 'revertigo' for becoming the kid that I was when I was in Dinosaur Jr. That's a pretty insecure place that I was in.

At nine or ten, I was playing guitar in music class in my elementary school in Jackson, Michigan. They had a guitar class, and I played with ten of my classmates, and we did a little guitar orchestra for a school music.

Just from the beginning, I really liked playing around with tape recorders. And then, when I got into punk rock, I only really liked - the rawer it was, the more I was into it.

Los Angeles was really beautiful, and California in general is a great place to live.

I've never been good at playing live in front of people.

People in the Midwest, there's a lot of regional pride and a lot more, like, fake positivity - 'That's great - you're awesome!'

I'm fully aware, I've gotten terrible reviews my entire career. It's not a really big deal; it's something I can deal with.

Some of my songs are positive and stuff, but some are about staring down at the ground and obsessing about stupid things, and it is teenage in a way.

Literally everything I do is either write songs and play music, or I'm immersed in my domestic life.

When you're in a band, it's kind of a big thing to be friends as well.

I went back and reread the Dinosaur chapter in 'Our Band Could Be Your Life,' and it was so depressing.

One thing about when I came back into Dinosaur that was really cool was that pretty much anybody that J. was working with who had a long-term relationship with J. were people I really liked and that I actually may have already known.

I've put out a lot of stuff that just confused and alienated people: a huge chunk of songs that were verbal and musical challenges to myself, thoughts I was keeping myself busy with, nothing I had any intention of anybody grasping onto.

I love making records, and part of really doing that and being happy about it is just that each time I've done something, I come to terms with what maybe is wrong with it, and then I move on to the next thing.

I don't know if i have a 'take' on L.A. The music community is enormous, from the studio musicians to the bands trying to 'make it' to the indie bands... so many bands... it can be overwhelming. But it seems healthy.

I don't know what ontological means... I barely graduated high school, and I have never heard that word in conversation.

Someone who's a really good engineer is someone who's a little bit smarter than you but who also listens to you and doesn't impose agendas.