There’s a lot of ways of seeing this record – I’m not even sure what the right way is. It’s a big rock record about not being a big rock band. Everything it tries to be it also denies, it’s equal parts overreaching, unachievable ambition and ever present doubt. It’s confused and contradictory, but we didn’t want to hide that. We’re at a weird place as a band and as people, and rather than say “we’re so indie and will never change” or “we’re gonna make something huge,” we figured to just lay it all out there let things resolve or remain unresolved in the course of these 10 songs. Lyrically, my life is not a standard indie trope. I am not this bookish, shy character content to ride bikes, eat cupcakes and hold hands in endless chaste devotion. Or at least I’m not always that way. I didn’t want to obscure what is immediate and genuine or hide behind cleverness or offer polite, pithy resolution where there was none. People could say the absence of a pun every 6 lines is dumbing things down, but to me it feels like the opposite – it’s not hiding behind sophistry. If it makes people uncomfortable to be engaged in such a direct way, or be confronted by the ambiguous nature of these songs, that’s ok.

It was the weird area where you’re definitely not cool but you’re in this other category — you go to punk shows but you study and do your homework; you don’t go all the way, you don’t smash your mom’s favorite things. It’s the weird dichotomy of wearing khakis at a punk show and drawing anarchy symbols on your desk.