I drive around in my car and listen to [the demo]. And if I drive by people I know, I have to roll the windows up and turn it down -- or if somebody calls, I have to turn it off.

[He does, however, admit to being a true Type 1 perfectionist.] I am one of those people who is never satisfied, ... When I was a little kid, I made a spaceship out of a refrigerator box, and I was pissed off that it wouldn't fly. Couldn't be happy with it. It was pretty cool, too.

The day it comes out, there's already things that you start to go, 'Oh, I should have done that a little differently.' You start to make a list in your head. I actually write things down -- what I'm going to do next time.

There's an intimacy lost on the big audiences, but there's also a sort of cool kind of buzz that you get from it too, like 'Wow -- there are 10,000 people here.' It tends to be a little more high energy, and you try to capture as many people as you can; whereas with a small show, you reveal a little bit more personality. I almost feel like I'm there hanging out with them or something. We mix it up. I do little intimate shows just because if I go a long time without doing them, it gets kind of weird -- like I'm playing at people.

Yeah, that was one crazy year. Basically my whole philosophy starting out -- because the question came up, 'Are you going to sign a label deal?' before anyone was really interested in signing me -- my idea was always 'Just go out and do it yourself.' The hardest thing for [a major record label] to do is to build a solid foundation, a base, which is like the first 50,000 records -- that core fan base.

[When he's performing live, Day says, there's a distinct difference between the big gigs and the little shows.] There's an intimacy lost on the big audiences, but there's also a sort of cool kind of buzz that you get from it too, like 'Wow -- there are 10,000 people here.' It tends to be a little more high energy, and you try to capture as many people as you can; whereas with a small show, you reveal a little bit more personality. I almost feel like I'm there hanging out with them or something, ... We mix it up. I do little intimate shows just because if I go a long time without doing them, it gets kind of weird -- like I'm playing at people.