I've always been a massive Beastie Boys fan, so if you look at their style aesthetic on Check Your Head, that was the headspace I was in for a minute. Whatever that was, that was me.
You really try to work the character out and spend time in the headspace of the character. That's what I did.
I guess I usually write when I'm in a really intense headspace, because it's my form of self-therapy.
With Dazed and Confused I got the high school experience I didn't get to have. So you do create families and homes. You're projecting and it's your job. The amount of time and headspace and thought it takes on your psyche is huge. It's exhausting, yeah. And it's exhausting but it's also great.
I can sort of will that stuff to happen to me if I put myself in the right headspace. Then I can actually get to a space where it won't just be one song that comes through, but a series of them.
People really respond to the songs when I play them in concert. Every song comes from a different place emotionally or from a different headspace.