Simon Hale, the British arranger, does all string and wood arrangements on my records.

Things come to me pretty regularly. There is never a shortage or a backlog.

Ultimately, if I'm really moved by something, it's going to go on the record and that's that.

But really important, perhaps most important is the craft; how you make your record, the creation of these sonic worlds you want your listener to hear.

I also wanted to make a record that was about other things than romance, yeah, after two years on the road singing all the songs from the first album, I got kind of tired of that.

I'd have these weird experiences where I'd just be walking down the street with this chord progression in my head, this happened more than a few times, and I'd walk home and find a fax in my machine and it would match the music in my head.

I'm fortunate I have this coterie of musicians around me to help take music to next level. Being surrounded by so much creative energy, so many creative people really feeds that creativity in me.

My second record was all about big ideas - I was trying to make big statements about the culture, about life. I think in a certain way, I was a 27 year old kid with a guitar.

So I started chanting when I was nineteen, which was about twelve years ago, and it really had a huge impact on my outlook, happiness, and general creativity.

The difficult thing about a pop record is that you're given guidelines: it has to have 3 choruses, and then it must be between 3 minutes fifteen seconds and three minutes forty-five seconds.

The experiences of promoting my first album were really something; there is so much illusion in my environment (touring and pop music) that I wanted to clear away.

I actually think sadness and darkness can be very beautiful and healing.

I wouldn't say that I've had a tough life by any stretch of the imagination.

So, once I've written a song, you know, I'm pretty happy with what the song is on its own terms.

A real foolproof way to do it is play your stuff by hook or by crook and build up a grass roots following.

And frankly, when I made that record, hit songs were not what I was trying to achieve.

Because of my Buddhist practice, I'm never lacking for inspiration.

But I can't really say there is too much modern music that I'm blown away by at this moment.

For my second record I had gotten ProTools (program) and started to familiar myself with hard disc recording.

Happy music doesn't tend to move me much.