Thinking hard thoughts

Hey, farmboy, what's new?

Not a whole lot, man. How 'bout you?

(The interviewer shakes his head) Not too much, farmboy.

It's funny, you know. I mean, there is stuff going on, but it's mostly work-related and I hate talking about that stuff when I'm not being paid to, you know? Musically it's all good, 'cept that work takes up too much of my fuckin' time, time that I could be devoting to the music. Or maybe that's just an excuse for my pathetic lack of practicing lately.

Are you being serious?

A little bit. I mean, fuck, I'm still playing, of course. It's just that I haven't gotten used to working. (laughs) This new job is pretty physical and I'm pretty physically out of shape. So I end up being tired...

You also ended up being sick, farmboy. You couldn't have planned that.

Yeah. So, no, the news of my guitar-playing death has been seriously over-dramatized.

Thank God.

Really.

This ain't anything to be concerned about, I don't think. I think that working is a shock after the so-called summer this year. And after the great Kickstarter project. Man oh man, now that was a fuckin' great experience.

It's just the beginning...

...of the great 2012 album experience! I've been working on the CD, making plans, thinking hard thoughts. I think a sound is beginning to come together in my head. I'm having to think like a producer, like I'm the producer I would like to work with. Does that make any sense at all?

It does, farmboy.

It's like having to be your own role model. And this thing, this album thing, this is what I can be absolutely serious in. It's kinda like, in a way, like when I was a kid, I was, like, fourteen. And my dad and his brothers -- my uncles -- they all came barrelling through the back yard gate with this fuckin' black upright piano. For me. It was a fuckin' dream come true, man. And you know what I did?

What, farmboy?

I sat down and played, like I was born to it. Even though I didn't know how! (laughs) It was like my birthright or something.

And that's what making this album is. That's how I need to approach it. Like it's the natural thing to do, because it fuckin' is, you know?

I know.

Well,, you might need to remind me of it these next few months. In case I forget.

Which you won't.

I know. But I could use the company, you know?