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.

My first two records were more energetic; Phantom Moon is subtle, quiet; so these various reactions are just something I expected.

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

If I were to do this over I'd play a lot more shows before I made a record.

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.

I certainly wouldn't say that my life is a disaster, but there have been moments where I've felt like that.

I mean, at the end of the day when I'm making a record, what I want to do is what I do.

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 actually am always a music first person.

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'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.

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

I try to make sure that the Buddhism is more or less implicit in the music rather than explicit.

Lately I've been a workaholic. I'm in the studio all the time and I've helped to produce a couple of artists.

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

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

I got a publishing deal with BMG, they were supportive, and some money to record demos.

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.

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

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

It's inevitable your environment will influence what you do.

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

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

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

I make the kind of music I like.

I think my Buddhist practice has a profound influence on my life and encompasses my creative projects.

I'm a pretty big P.J. Harvey record fan and you can really hear New York in his record.

Happy music doesn't tend to move me much.

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 think in a way I was probably completely naive about what it takes to make something become a hit.

I started playing music at a pretty young age.

I feel fortunate about being able to make the music I want to make and getting away with it.

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

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.

I privilege the music over the lyrics.

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

Its inevitable your environment will influence what you do.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

I was part of it, and I am still part of it today in terms of what it means to a whole new generation of people who are interested in the enduring energy, achievements, spirit and creativity that exemplified our era.

Properly practiced creativity must result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent.

I think if I had been writing fiction, where the work is entirely dependent on the writer's creativity and the potential directions the narrative might take are infinite, I might have frozen.

Watch MTV and you can see what the music scene is like in England. The Spice Girls? Not a lot of creativity in the commercial area. There are still great musicians in England, but not a lot being heard that much.

You can't take a character anywhere they don't expect the character to go. But within those confines is where creativity lies.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

The mind uses its faculty for creativity only when experience forces it to do so.

But the person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character, leadership, creativity, perseverance.

Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.

Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?