Norton is best known for working with bands like the Pixies and Foo Fighters. How'd you decide to hire him? I sent demos to a bunch of producers and met with probably 12 or 13. It came down to two, and I picked Gil because we really hit it off. It was his idea for me to play all the instruments; he thought it would make such a special album. He'd never worked with a solo artist before - he'd only worked with bands. And he'd never worked one-on-one with anyone in the studio, so he was really excited about that idea.

What about you? Did you dig it immediately? Deep down, I really loved the idea, but there was a big problem with it because my best friend, Josh Lattanzi, who's been playing bass guitar with me for years, immediately came to my mind. I've had different guitar players and drummers, but Josh has really been a constant. So I told Gil, "It'd be really cool to play all the instruments, but Josh has to be on this record." And Gil was sympathetic to that and totally respected where I was coming from, but he also said, "This is one album in your career, and you're gonna make tons of albums." He really believes that you've gotta do whatever's best for the album. And if this batch of songs needed to be played by me and have my fingerprint on every instrument, then that's what needed to happen.

There's more piano on the record than on your last few. A lot of the songs were written on piano. I wanted it to have all the classic rock-and-roll instruments. But every song pretty much has piano and guitar happening together. It's hard for me to say that "Sundress" is a piano song and "I Don't Know Why" is a guitar song, because you can play 'em on any instrument. I'm trying to simplify my music, and I think that's a big goal for a lot of songwriters. The more you do it, the more you just wanna get to the real root of the subject. I think my music sounds easy to play, which is good. But I know that not just any guy could come up and do what I do.