Did it work? Yeah, I ended up managing to get a new song in half-decent shape by the end of each day. I was waking up, coming up with an idea on the guitar, going in the studio, and recording it. I think because of the failure, because of something not working out, I was trying to prove a point - like, "I can do this in my sleep; I can write a song a day." And that's what I ended up doing.

Did you enjoy the feeling of working under the gun? I don't know whether I'd say I enjoyed it. But there's something to be said for having a disciplined approach. The problem with being an artist is the rock-and-roll ethic - you don't really want to work hard. You already worked hard to get yourself where you are, and you don't want to work hard anymore. You just want to be lazy. But because I was thinking I had to prove myself, it became fairly reckless. I had no focus; I was just recklessly recording new songs every day without any reasons for it and with no real direction.

Did Nick provide that direction? Well, by the time I got to Christmas, I had so many ideas to choose from that I didn't know where to start. So in January, I just kind of started recording songs one by one with Nick and probably recorded far too many songs again. Eventually, we ended up finalizing the album with 12 main songs on it.

What was different about working with Nick? The main difference in the process was that I just went back to how I've always done things - putting down the bass and the drums and my guitar or piano, and then building up the instruments over the top of that. That's basically how I've always made music; that's the process I can understand. And that's where things can get interesting: Stuff can happen without your realizing it, without your planning it. You can chance upon things just by overdubbing and improvising ideas on top of the template you've put down.