How much time per day do you put in?
I usually think of some sort of melody every day and sing it into my cell phone's voice recorder. But there are maybe two or three days a week that I really don't put any time into it. A couple days of the week, I'm figuring out the arrangements. And then there's usually one or two days of recording, and then one day of mixing and mastering. It's quick, but I don't think I can work every day. Probably the early part of the week I'm taking it easy, and by Wednesday I'm starting.

How do you feel about the results thus far?
I think for the most part I'm really happy with them. First of all, I think the songwriting is better than what I've done in the past. I'm getting used to writing pop songs and figuring out ways to put them together that sound interesting to me. I'm spending a little more time on vocals than I ever did before. Generally that's been something that's been tough in the past, singing in different studios and singing in front of other people in the studio, and not feeling that comfortable with the results.

Do you wish you had more time to sit with the songs before releasing them?
Yeah, there have been a couple of production moves and some lyrics that have kind of passed through without giving them a third look. But I knew that was going to happen. There's no way everything is going to turn out the way I want, especially given the time limitations. I just have to put it behind me and go to the next, and hope at the end of it I feel like I did everything I could. I don't feel like I could've done better singing these songs. I think that's just because I spend so much damn time on the vocals and really make sure that I have the time to work at it.

Have you tested any of these songs live?
There are a couple songs that I wrote last year that I did do in shows, but it wasn't designed to test them for the purpose of this project. I just wanted to play them. I've done less touring this year than I'm accustomed to, and I've played a lot of the songs from the project. The issue is that there are so many damn songs, I'm literally forgetting words quite a bit onstage. At first it was funny, and now it's getting kind of annoying to me that if I'm going to introduce a new song, I really have to practice it.

What are you doing to keep inspired over 52 weeks?
I'm trying to read a lot. I was given a book that I'm reading very slowly, The Sea, by a guy named John Banville. It was given to me by the tour manager of Martin Sexton. Literally, in every sentence there's a word I have to look up, so it's very difficult. I'm also trying to meet people and talk to them. There's no way that I'm going to be able to write 52 songs about my life and make it that interesting. My life is not that interesting. So I have to find something interesting about what somebody else is going through, and maybe put myself in their shoes in the song.

What if, at the end of the 52 weeks, your fans pick songs you hate?
That could be a problem. So far I haven't written anything I hate. There are some I like more than others.

On the other hand, what if they don't pick something you really want to record?
I don't know what I'm going to do. I might still record it and put it on something else. I think it's something that intrigues people enough to make them want to get involved. They're going to be telling me what I should be playing, so it's an interesting idea.


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