James Mercer: I've never gone through an audition process or anything....

The thing that inspires me most is empathizing with people's flaws and seeing how they deal with them. That sort of connection you feel with someone when you realize that maybe even the negative things that they've said or done are because of insecurities or injuries they've endured.

James Mercer

insecurity inspire people

One thing that I've struggled with has been a certain amount of animosity toward the whole human race.

James Mercer

certain humans race

Humans are social creatures that really crave intimacy.

James Mercer

intimacy humans social

There's something artistic about skating. A psychologist could tell you exactly why that is, but I think there's something much more expressive that gives you a lot of room for unique and individual expression. Whatever you're interested in can become something you kind of own in your group of skater friends.

James Mercer

unique expression thinking

I think that was going on with bands like The Strokes was that the idea of the band, a real band, was making a comeback. My brother in law is an example- before he was listening to some country music, even some of that awful nu-metal stuff , but there weren't many options really.

James Mercer

real brother country

I kissed my first girl when I was 15, and then I lost my virginity when I was 17. So that's pretty good. It was just that when you're in high school, you're sort of forced into the normal world, where you're competing with the football players, just kind of in that world where somebody like me didn't quite fit in.

James Mercer

girl football school

My dad and I get into it all the time. He loves to discuss politics much more than I do and we have pretty heated conversations.

James Mercer

my-dad dad conversation

My extended family is very political and very polar with each other, and it's put a bad taste in my mouth. All the rhetoric going back and forth and sort of hating on each other. So I'm not an extremely politically active person at this stage of my life.

James Mercer

rhetoric political hate

I really know so little about recording, and I'm learning as I go.

James Mercer

knows littles

I'm not really excited about the idea of committing to anything permanently.

James Mercer

excited ideas

I really [enjoy] working with new people and just sort of the freshness of it. ... I [want] to have those new conversations, musically and otherwise.

James Mercer

want conversation people

If you're 14 and you're skinny, you can't be on the football team, basically. It's just not even really possible. But skating is something that you can do that gets that athletic urge satisfied, but you get to do it on your own terms. You can be as ballsy as you want to be. It was perfect for me.

James Mercer

team perfect football

I tend to [have] a lot of ideas but then just leave them in that infant form and kind of move on.

James Mercer

kind ideas moving

I was a regular dork. I was a kid who was scrawny and all that, and probably kind of dumb or something. I wasn't unordinary; I wasn't extraordinary.

James Mercer

dumb kind kids

Horrible dates are when you're with people who are immature and can't really be comfortable in their own skin.

James Mercer

immature skins people

I suppose, if someone was into baseball for an extended period of time during their formative years, they're always going to be interested in it.

James Mercer

periods baseball years

I think perfect dates involve walking a lot, and not a bunch of driving around in cars. Ideally, you can walk together and go to a restaurant.

James Mercer

car perfect thinking

I think that what's funny is that I seem to be taking up the roles that I remember my dad having - for some reason, I'm the one who makes the coffee, and my dad was always that guy. It's kind of shocking how closely I compare to my dad.

James Mercer

dad coffee thinking

I do like talking with friends about big concepts, you know, the stuff that will ruin a party. To me, the party hasn't begun until we're talking about the nonexistence of God.

James Mercer

ruins party talking

There's no real reason for me to be so obsessed with trying to understand the true nature of things. You can live a perfectly happy life being utterly confused and not knowing.

James Mercer

confused real happy-life

I've never gone through an audition process or anything. In most of my decisions like that, I just kind of feel it out: You know, do I feel comfortable with this person?