"It often starts with a riff or a simple melody that gets stuck in my head and won't leave until I get it down. After that, it's a matter of building up the support around it and placing it in context. Most of the time, it's the lyrics that come last. I'll listen to what I've got, and more often than not, the story begins to tell itself by how the music makes me feel. That said, the end result is usually at complete odds with the song I originally thought I was writing. I kind of like it that way."