What Do You Do With What You're

I'm Starting To Get Older, And Began To Think About Mortality A Little More. My Mother Died In 2003 And That Was A Big Shock. When Your Parents Start To Die Off, That's Going To Be A Revelation. So For Me, This Album - Although It Might Sound Quite Cheery - Is Really Talking About Death.

Anthemic Rock Music Is Inherently Fascist - Anything Intended To Move Huge Masses Of People Is Politically Offensive To Me.

My Writing Is Really Intuitive. As A Kid, I Went To School In New Jersey And Hung Out In New York, So The Way Kids Used To Talk Got Into Our Earlier Songs.

Randy Newman Seemed Like An Even Worse Singer Than Me. I Liked Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jack Jones, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett.

I Took Some Lessons As A Kid But Trained Myself By Ear. I Did It The Way Jazz Musicians Used To Learn Years Ago, Which Is To Play Records And Slow Them Down To Figure Out The Notes. At First I Tried To Imitate Red Garland, Who Was My Favorite Jazz Pianist.