It feels good to push yourself into uncomfortable territory. There's nothing more thrilling than feeling like, "This train might just come off the rails right now, in front of these people".
I think there's a difference between the type of folk music that people put into the box of "folk music" and then there's the kind of folk music that I aspire to and am in awe of, and that is the kind of folk music where it's very limited tools - in most cases a guitar, in a self-taught style that is idiosyncratic and particular to that musician.
I'm pushing myself in other, slower directions. Some of the stuff that I'm writing is not necessarily so speedy; it's a different kind of intense that I'm going for now, a more focused intensity. It's good to look at what you've done and think, "What have I not done?" That's why so many artists that have longer careers do change, and sometimes very abruptly, because if you're not interested, how the hell is anybody else supposed to be? If you're bored, everyone else is going to be too.
