I try to make sure that the Buddhism is more or less implicit in the music rather than explicit.
I wouldn't say that I've had a tough life by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd have these weird experiences where I'd just be walking down the street with this chord progression in my head, this happened more than a few times, and I'd walk home and find a fax in my machine and it would match the music in my head.
I'm a pretty big P.J. Harvey record fan and you can really hear New York in his record.
I'm fortunate I have this coterie of musicians around me to help take music to next level. Being surrounded by so much creative energy, so many creative people really feeds that creativity in me.
It's inevitable your environment will influence what you do.
A real foolproof way to do it is play your stuff by hook or by crook and build up a grass roots following.
If I were to do this over I'd play a lot more shows before I made a record.
Simon Hale, the British arranger, does all string and wood arrangements on my records.
So I started chanting when I was nineteen, which was about twelve years ago, and it really had a huge impact on my outlook, happiness, and general creativity.
So, once I've written a song, you know, I'm pretty happy with what the song is on its own terms.
The experiences of promoting my first album were really something; there is so much illusion in my environment (touring and pop music) that I wanted to clear away.
I feel fortunate about being able to make the music I want to make and getting away with it.
Lately I've been a workaholic. I'm in the studio all the time and I've helped to produce a couple of artists.
My first two records were more energetic; Phantom Moon is subtle, quiet; so these various reactions are just something I expected.