You look back and see pictures of yourself, or hear an old song, and you know where that came from or why you were working on that - but you don't want to do that again. You don't necessarily hate it, but you're a very different person now, so, in that way you do.

Hamilton Leithauser

Categorized in : Song Hate Different

The first ones I played were in New York at Joe's Pub; I played four shows, but I did something like 30 interviews and a couple radio shows in the mornings and completely blew out my voice. It kind of sucked.

Hamilton Leithauser

couple new-york morning

My friends just kept joking about all the horrible physical side effects [of Prednisone ]. I can only imagine that something that works that well has got to be bad for you.

Hamilton Leithauser

side-effects imagine sides

I used to put the vocals on top and piece it together. Now I start with the vocals and the string parts I write; the drums are kind of an afterthought. And who knows, maybe that will get boring, but right now that's the most interesting way for me.

Hamilton Leithauser

together writing interesting

Everyone in Seattle is a total pussy when it comes to snow. The whole city shut down, the place looked like an apocalyptic movie.

Hamilton Leithauser

pussy cities snow

Traveling makes a vacation lose all appeal. You would never want to take the family to a European city. You travel a lot, but it's a job.

Hamilton Leithauser

vacation cities jobs

You feel like half of your life is a vacation when you go to these Barcelona music festivals and have all day to sound check or go to the pool.

Hamilton Leithauser

vacation half sound

When you spend your whole life traveling it does get really tedious and exhausting.

Hamilton Leithauser

get-real whole-life doe

I never want to travel while I'm on vacation anymore. The only vacations I want to take now are ones where I just go and sit somewhere.

Hamilton Leithauser

want-to-travel vacation want

When you're in your twenties you always think that 30 is a long ways off, and maybe you'll have things in line when you hit that number - maybe own a house or be married.

Hamilton Leithauser

numbers long thinking

When I finally got to 30, I'll admit that there was a little anxiety, but at the same time I actually really liked it.

Hamilton Leithauser

anxiety littles

I think I got interested in singing without being too over-the-top. I was more calmly singing the words - which I thought had really come a long way. I thought they were worth singing clearly.

Hamilton Leithauser

singing long thinking

I write songs now I look at my strengths and I start there. In The Walkmen, we'd start with the live stuff.

Hamilton Leithauser

writing song looks

The funny thing is that the studio that we recorded in was the same studio that Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole used to warm up their voices in before they went across the street to CBS Radio. The owner has preserved it exactly the way it was in 1925. It was such a perfect coincidence that we were doing music inspired by that stuff in that room. It was incredible.

Hamilton Leithauser

funny-things voice kings

I felt like I could get away with calling it Black Hours. That could easily be the most depressing record ever written, but because there is this sense of fun throughout the whole thing I felt like I could get away with it. Like "5 A.M."; that song's in a minor key and I'm just wailing away and it could have been just wallowing depression, but it's not.

Hamilton Leithauser

depressing song fun

When I got to L.A. I woke up and I was losing my voice because of the dry air. It was like, "Oh my god, this is going to be Joe's Pub all over again."

Hamilton Leithauser

dry voice air

I was staying at my friend's house and he told me about the drug Prednisone. It took me 14 years to discover it. And there are a lot of times that would have helped me out over the years. I can't believe I'd never even heard of it, though.

Hamilton Leithauser

house believe years

I'm really not into the idea of just faking songs with a synthesizer. That just isn't the music I'm making at all.

Hamilton Leithauser

synthesizers song ideas

The great thing is that when you hire string players you always get really great players. I don't know why that is.

Hamilton Leithauser

get-real strings player

I'm always writing music. I sort of do it obsessively, for good or for bad. It's good that it keeps me going, but it's bad because it really is sort of like an obsession where you can't stop sometimes and it'll keep you up at night and ruin your weekend.

Hamilton Leithauser

weekend writing night

I was writing music when we finished the last Walkmen record, Heaven, and a few of these songs may have even been started before Heaven was done. With The Walkmen we all wrote a lot of stuff alone, but then we'd start collaborating with each other.

Hamilton Leithauser

writing song heaven