I don't think their personalities are necessarily these big, extraordinary, larger-than-life characters. They're really just normal guys.

'Plans' sounds like a Death Cab record. Atlantic wasn't sending it to marketing groups to test for hits or have reps crawling all over the studio. They still call us pretty regularly to get our opinion on things and seem to be concerned that the transition doesn't involve some tectonic shift in what has brought the band success so far.

I've received many good pieces of advice throughout my life.

Certainly we can say that the pace of modern life, increased and supported by our technology in general and our personal electronics in particular, has resulted in a short attention span and an addiction to the influx of information. A mind so conditioned has little opportunity to think critically, and even less chance to experience life deeply by being in the present moment. A complex life with complicated activities, relationships and commitments implies a reflexive busy-ness that supplants true thinking and feeling with knee-jerk reactions. It is a life high in stress and light on substance, at least in the spiritually meaningful dimensions of being.

My advice to those who are about to begin, in earnet, the journey of life, is to take their heart in one hand and a club in the other.

I'm looking forward to finding someone in life that I can be truly happy with and relate to on all levels - someone I can bounce my stuff off. Right now, though, I'm not searching for that. I couldn't possibly handle it at this point. But I still like knowing it will be out there sometime later.