You made Lifeline without taking a break after coming off the road. Had you wanted to do that for a while? For the longest time. But it was always a matter of the tours being superlong, or only having the time at the end of a year's worth of touring, or just the expenditure of it all. This time, I just stumbled on a time in my life when it was all possible. We had the time, the place, the technicians, the instruments.

Even though they were recorded differently, do you think any of your older albums have Lifeline's immediacy? The closest I got was the Blind Boys record. There was a week or two-week gap [between touring and recording] on that one, so you still had that grease on you and you still had your chops in your back pocket. I've discovered that the more time you take off, the more you really have to recommit to your chops. And then you end up leaning on technology: "Let's do it over and put this there and the other thing in the other place." Coming right off the road, it's an absolute extension of touring; second takes don't make sense. If you have to overdub harmonies or whatever, okay - there's a certain amount of embellishing you do. But recording live gives the foundation that much more stability.

Recording with computer software such as Pro Tools, for instance, creates something less stable? I've recorded entire records on Pro Tools, proudly. So I'm not trying to insult the other process or say that one is better than the other. But this record had to have that sound for it to have its sonic, emotional, musical authenticity. I thought if I'm gonna make a record right off the road - and if I really want it to be as raw as possible - I've gotta keep that out of the equation.