Sometimes the most honest thing you can say about yourself is that you’re not good at talking about yourself.” I feel like that’s true for a lot of people, too. We don’t always know how to do that. There are different skills and a bunch of different ways that can be valuable to people and in some ways that can even be freeing to have those opportunities. In “Tall Tall Grass,” the final track from their most recent album, Fences, you say, “And one day it might just be your name on my door when I leave / I’ll see you down the long road.” [Laughs.] I wrote that when my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. We moved to Chicago, and I went to visit him in the hospital. He was in a dementia ward, which is a really, really difficult place to go because it was just so sad and so sad for him and for my mom, you know? So when I went there to visit him and he was like “I want to see you,” I was like “We can see each other later, Dad, you’re not in any condition to see anyone right now.” I sat there and we just talked about what was happening. I knew he wasn’t the same. He was very tired. He wouldn’t let me stay there. But I told him that I was there to visit him. That this is your son. It’s you, Dad. This is what’s happening. We’re here. This is the long road that I’m taking with you, as a father to a father. I think it’s something we have to be really aware of as people who are getting older. You’re going to lose a lot of people. Whether you want to admit it or not. And you’re going to have to deal with that in different ways. It just made me more aware of, when you’re having that conversation with the person, you’re saying that you’re not going anywhere. That you’re going to keep moving forward and moving forward with them. That you’re not going to leave them behind and leave them alone. It’s a long road. And you get to the point where you realize how short your life is. It’s like “I’ve got to live it.” It’s not going to be the same as the life that you want. But then the hope is that you can give it the best, most passionate life you can give it, because you don’t get it back. I have been thinking about this a lot in relation to you, as we are wrapping up for the interview. It seems like there are a lot of really great, positive opportunities for you to really flourish with your musical career. I know you are on tour right now with Haim and I think that has to be a really awesome experience for you. Are there any other kind of projects that you’re working on, besides your album or your solo record? Well, I have this project called “Strange Mercy,” which is where I’ve been writing for the last year. But I don’t really have any plans for it. I just had a label meeting. I said, “I think I’m going to be taking a break from music because I need some time to pursue other interests.” I’m an animator, I draw for Cartoon Network, and I’m taking time to work on some of that stuff and making some animations and stuff like that. But I also have a really awesome video series called “The Vault” that I’m starting. We don’t really know what it’s going to be yet. I met my partner today and we’re going to be working on that over the next few weeks, and that will be a whole different thing. That might be interesting. [Laughs.] Well that’s exciting. Thank you so much. I’ve been a fan since The Get Up Kids, and just got into you guys again recently with this new project. But I’m a big fan of the music. I like “Tall Tall Grass” the best of all of the songs you’ve released. I wanted to ask you why did you choose that one? I did a lot of writing while I was on tour. I would write something one day and then realize I was using a lot of the same ideas and the same themes I had written about a year ago in other songs that were probably my favorite. I wanted to use that as my new favorite song, so I thought if I’m going to use this song, then let’s write a new song for it. And that was “Tall Tall Grass.” I wanted to make a song that was a bit more romantic and have a lot more pop elements to it than “In the Sun.” And that’s kind of how I’ve been writing lately: a little bit less indie rock and a little bit more, pop-ish. And you’re always trying to challenge yourself. I think that’s important for an artist. It’s important for all of us. Even though I’m 35, I still feel like I’m growing and trying to figure out what my voice is. I’m always trying to think of new ways to tell stories, and I think that’s something that’s still in my work ethic. I don’t want to be stuck in a place where I can’t be creative. I’m so glad that you said that, because I wanted to ask you about that. There was an article in the magazine, in which you said that even though there’s been some struggles with getting songs put out, or that you’ve gotten a few rejections, “It’s just part of the process. You have to learn to let it go.” You wrote a piece for The Guardian where you talked about your career getting a bit stagnant in terms of finding that new way to tell the story. Are there any pieces you’ve written about your own songwriting that you’ve always felt like you’re keeping just to yourself, just in case you do have a sort of epiphany, or a moment that maybe the world doesn’t need to know right away? Yeah. I think about those moments a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So when you came out with this statement that “I was never going to do anything to mess up the legacy of The Get Up Kids. I would not taint that by doing anything stupid.” Was that a reaction to a specific comment that you made? It was more of an overall statement about the expectations I feel I have. And as people are constantly looking for new albums and new music from me, when I’m on tour and doing music that I feel is new, for me it’s less about the music and the sound. It’s more about the feeling of the album. I’ve been putting out a lot of music, and a lot of it is different from what I put out last year, even last month. But with each release, the expectation is that it’s going to sound like what I had done before, just with slightly different things. So when people hear “Take It Easy, Kid,” they expect it to sound like “All the Days Were the Same” or something. And I wanted to keep on a path of not tainting that. “Tales Told” is one of my favorite songs. Yes, I love “Tales Told.” Just the sound of that track. The sound of that record that you made with Ryan Adams, “Portions O’ Plenty.” It’s such a really great collection of songs. I’ve always wanted to know more about that recording process. How much input did you have with that song? It was definitely a very personal thing for me. The lyrics were much more personal. This album was different for me because I had a lot more freedom to not only do the album, but to do the album the way I wanted to do it. And that was something that I wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to have that sort of connection with a producer or an artist, and I felt like with “Portions O’ Plenty,” I wanted to make sure that was the case. You know, when you’re in a room with a producer, you want to have a connection with them in that room, and the feeling of the album is really important. Because if I feel something, and I’m hearing something that feels like a good representation of how I feel about the song, then that’s what I want to put out there. I just wanted to bring that up because I think that’s a really important thing. With “Tales Told,” I remember you talked about how you had been in bands since you were 15, how your writing process doesn’t change. It’s always in you. And one of the things I love about your work is that it’s very genuine. It’s very true to you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I guess I got lucky. There are a lot of other talented people that I know that work really hard, and never get