MICHAEL: Yeah, very much so. I mean, the idea of calling it Open, as well. There's a dual sense to "open" as well. I mean, the initial idea is something which is open or somebody that's open is a very positive thing. But then when you are open, you're also very vulnerable to things that come in through whatever, the door. And so there's also a menacing side to it, as well, I think. And the songs very much reflect both those sides. It sort of starts very dark, this record, and gets brighter as you go along, hopefully a little bit brighter (laughs)

MARGO: Really bright! (laughs).

JODY: Rivers and bodies of water play a large part on this record and on most of your records...

MICHAEL: That's true. I think river, in general, the symbol and metaphor of the river is something that's been certainly in song and literature forever as a very strong metaphor for life. It's something that's always flowing, always changing. It's obviously very important for life, specifically, you know. That's where all our communities and our cities have grown up on rivers, obviously, for transportation and also just for the source of water. It's hard to get away from it. If you listen enough to our songs, if you like the river it always pops up. It's always there.

JODY: Margo, do you think that Open represents a new beginning for Cowboy Junkies because it's a new business situation now' It's the first studio record you've done since leaving Geffen and also just the record itself is very aggressive musically.

MARGO: Well, yes and no. I mean, it's interesting because on -- this is just the Junkies side of it, just the four of us. It's just one more record in a long line of records, I hope. And at least another 20 to follow. So it's just another record that we're writing at this moment. And it's recorded in that way, too, just how we are at this moment, how we feel. And those decisions that have created this record are based on just that. But on a business side, yeah, I agree with you. To me, anyway, it is a new beginning. It is a new start. There's a lot -- I have a lot of hope in this record that I'd like it to work to prove we can do this without major labels and all the involvement that we've had in the past, just to be able to say, you know, it can be done this way. To show other bands, too, that you don't have to have all the trappings in order to make a career. You might not sell millions, but just enough to pay the rent is good.

JODY:I have some questions that came from your fans through cowboyjunkies.com that I'd like to share with you. The first addresses what might be the continuity amongst the Junkies' records. The question came from Jason Lent. And he says, "On previous albums, location greatly influenced the creative process -- Maiden's Mill, Sharon Temple, Athens -- where was Open worked on and how did it influence the song?'"

MICHAEL: That's a good question. A lot of these songs were written in the country, as well, near Maiden's Mill where "Miles From Our Home" was written. I had a place up there for six months, my wife and I. And so that's why a lot of the imagery is very, you know, (the lyrics have) a lot of natural environment imagery in it. Environment has a big part, in, certainly in the writing process. It's what I stare at while I'm writing a song. That's how I write songs. I basically have to shut myself off from the world for months on end and just sort of take in what's around me and then also ruminate on what's going on in my life outside of this sort of little bubble of songwriting. But certainly, the influences and the metaphor that I tend to then draw on are directly in front of me. So if I'm in the country writing, then the natural environment will have a big affect on it. But the recording of it was really done in Toronto, in downtown Toronto. And it was done -- it's more reflective of, of the way we approached the record, which was recording it with a live band, our live band which we had on the road for two years, a seven-piece band. And it's just bringing that band off the road right into the studio and recording. So we'd write two or three songs, we'd go out on the road for a couple of weeks, come off the road, just set up in the studio, play. For two days. Go away. So there was never really any sort of sitting back and analyzing tape. It was really just, "Let's just play with music and we'll see if we have a record later. Don't worry about what's in tune, what's out of tune. Let's just pretend we're playing live." And I think it's really reflected in the record. It's a very dynamic-sounding record. And I think that's because of that.

JODY:A lot of times when you ask songwriters about their songs, they might say, Well, there's some of it - me in there, but I write about characters. "Bread and Wine", there's a vision of infidelity in this song. Then there's kind of a Biblical reference. It makes it hard to believe that these are purely the thoughts of characters because they're drawn so well. And Michael, you could get in trouble answering that question. So, I throw it to you, though.

MICHAEL: I'm a good Catholic boy. You know, they are -- well, they're in my head. My wife certainly looks at me when she listens to this song and goes, "Anything you want to tell me'" There is a line in that song which refers to, you know, I could turn this into fantasy or something like that. So that's basically what it is. But, you know, all the songs on this album relate to being at a certain place in one's life and sort of reflecting on where one is. And you know, in-in-inin the pop culture cliché way it's basically about mid-life crisis. And, you know, this is that side of it. It's that whole sort of -- the looking at where one is with one relationship and sort of figuring out, well, where can I go from here, if anywhere. And that's it. And then the Biblical references come back because I'm a Catholic boy. I was raised Catholic. And whenever I think those thoughts, I have to be punished for them. So I'm taking communion right away.

JODY:Well, since you mentioned your upbringing, we have another question that came through the Cowboy Junkies' website. It came from Tim in Big Rock, Illinois. And he says, "What do your parents think about your success'"

MARGO: Oh, they're relieved. You know, in the early days when we were a young band just starting off, they had three of their children in a van, driving around America, making no money, sleeping on people's floors and driving on highways in the middle of the night for many hours on end. So three of their children was half of their children. They had six of them. So it was frightening for them. And we weren't all that young, either. We were sort of in our later 20s when the band started off. As far as my parents were concerned, this was something we should have gotten out of our systems when we were 18, you know (laughs). So the fact that it worked to the point where we can pay our mortgages and feed our families on our music is a great relief to them. And also, they like our music and they can share in it. And they can bring their friends to our shows and not be too embarrassed by the whole thing. Yeah. So it's fun, it's good.

MICHAEL: I don't think they're too keen on this record.

MARGO: Yeah. (Lots of laughter!)

JODY:You're in trouble with your wife. You're in trouble with your parents. But you're more than 15 years into a journey that involves three siblings. How has the music journey of Cowboy Junkies changed your relationship as family, at least amongst the two of you and Peter'

MARGO: That's a good question. You know, I think we've been really protective of the family side of our lives. We haven't really -- you know, it's never been something we've talked about or set out rules to protect, but I think we've all known that protecting the family side of our relationship was something we really had to be careful about and not to mix business and family. If Cowboy Junkies falls apart because Michael and I start hating each other, there's a lot of other people that are going to get hurt besides just the band. There's all my other brothers and sisters and my parents. So it's been something we've been really careful about. And I think the way we've done that is just that when we are working, we're working. And we have that relationship and those guidelines in that relationship. And then when we're family, when we're at my mom's house or hanging out, that's what we are. You know, I mean, he's just my evil older brother then you know (laughs). And we don't talk business at the family dinner table or anything like that. We leave that for Monday you know. And so it's sort of just worked out that way. And as I say, family is important to all the siblings. It's not just us. My sisters are my best friends. So we all have this very tight group and it's important to us.

JODY: The relationship with you and Michael especially is interesting because Michael writes the lyrics and then, Margo, you have to sing them. My question is: How do you get inside these lyrics that you didn't write and then you have to sing' Do you have to live with them a while' Do you have to play them for a while'

MARGO: It depends on the song. Some songs he hands me and, you know, I'd almost think that he was writing from my head. I often say he doesn't even know what he wrote, because it's so personal to me. And I know exactly how I want to sing the song and how I want to express it and what it means. Even if it isn't what he intended, I know how I want it to sound. And the best part about our singer/songwriting situation is that Michael has never had such a big ego that he's had to tell me how to sing it or it must be this way. You have to express it this way. He's allowed me to put my own interpretation on it. So when I get that kind of song, it's so there, it's just right there. There are other songs that I'm not -- I don't have any personal experience with. I don't --It means nothing to me as far as my own life. So at that point, I become a storyteller. And I'm just telling the story and I hope that it, it touches somebody else's life experience and they bring their experience to it. The listener.
And then there are some songs I don't know what he's talking about! (Laughs). And there's two things with those songs. Sometimes I just approach it from -- as if I'm just singing Italian. And I just listen to the rhythm of the words and the music that the boys are giving me and sing it from that perspective of just -- just rhythm. And that can be really fun to do. And other ones, if I can't do that and I'm just not getting it, I don't know what it means, I can't connect with the music because I just don't feel it, I'll ask him and sort of say, "Can you throw me a bone here." He'll um, he's not -- I wish he'd tell me what the song means, just tell me how to sing it (laughs). That would make it easier for us all. He'll usually give me sort of a guideline, go in this direction. Or he'll just say, "You're going in the right direction. You're doing okay." And what will often happen, is several months on the road or several years later, I'll be singing it and it will just dawn on me what this song means. It's, it's -- you know, right in the middle of the show, I want to stop and go "Oh, I got it. I know what it means." (Laughs) It's fun.

JODY:And that happens to us as listeners.

MARGO: Yeah, I think it does. And that's, to me, what's so intriguing about Michael's songwriting is that it's not always so obvious. And it -- you know, on our website there's a lot of times, which I love, where people are discussing certain lyrics and then everybody writes in what they think it means. And it all makes sense. You know, you interpret a song with your own life experience, so it's going to mean something different to you than it will to me. And you know, it's fine.

JODY:"I'm So Open" is not exactly the title track to the new album Open, but a central song to the themes that, that the album deals with. And Michael, I'm not going to ask you to tell us exactly what the song is about. But is part of it about just being open to all that life has to offer'

MICHAEL: Yeah. And that's why it's one of the central songs on the album. The theme of this record being, you know, hitting a certain point in one's life and trying to figure out where you're at and looking forward and looking backwards and looking at what's at your feet. And trying to make sense of it all. And that really -- that's what that song is about. That sort of search, that sort of head-spinning search, where you don't really know where to focus.

MARGO: You don't even necessarily have the answers.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

MARGO: You know, I mean, I think ["I'm So Open"] for me, is filled with -- like Michael says, if you are open, you're also open to -- you're more vulnerable. And in this song, there's a feeling of not being quite sure of whether you want to be all that open, whether you want to answer these questions, you know, so...

MICHAEL: And I think what does happen in that song, the -- and the reason the title is "I'm So Open", if there's a conclusion, it is, you know, you don't necessarily know the answer to these, but the way to find those answers or to figure it out is to remain open, to be vulnerable. That's the only really way to even come close to figuring it all out. So I think that's sort of the pivotal point in the record, in a way.

JODY:There was one question that came through the [cowboyjunkies.com] website that dealt with the theme of the album. This is from John Hays in Tallahassee, Florida, who says, "How did you come about using the Venus Flytrap for the cover' Is there any symbolism between it and the theme of the work'"

MICHAEL: Oh, without a doubt. You know, it's a very weird relationship that we have with our designer, David Houghton. He's done all our design work since Caution Horses. And I was sitting with him one night and discussing the upcoming record. And I gave him two titles. And one of them was Open. He said, "I think I might have" -- and he hadn't heard any music yet. He said, "I think I might have an idea for that." And he came the next day and he had the Venus Flytrap. And it was just perfect because it -- you know, it's beautiful. It's really a beautiful, stunning image and a stunning plant and creature. At the same time, it's incredibly menacing. It eats things. And so this -- there's that sort of a catch-phrase of being menacingly beautiful, which I think really describes the music quite a lot on this record. There's a real beauty to it, to some of it, but it's also pretty dark and menacing. So it seemed to capture it perfectly.

JODY:Michael do you and Margo work out a song before you present it to Peter and Alan and the rest of your extended band'

MICHAEL: Yeah. Normally, what happens is I'll write the song just like we heard on acoustic guitar, except I'm the one singing it. And then I sit with Margo and I introduce it to her or I put it on tape for her. And then I go in with Pete and Al. And the three of us sort of work out just a general feel of the song, the vibe of it. Sort of the atmosphere. Sometimes it'll change quite radically and sometimes it will just augment what I'm doing on acoustic. And then the four of us will get together. Margo will come in and begin to -- we'll just begin to form it as a unit. And that's sort of like the -- that's the -- where it turns into a Cowboy Junkie song is when the four of us kind of get the overall feel and vibe of the song. And then depending on who we're using on the song as far as backup musicians or who we're using on the recording or the live playing, we'll get them into the studio and into our rehearsal space and just, again, be very, very loose about it. Just sort of play it. You know, maybe I'll make a couple of suggestions for instrumentation. But I try not to even do that. I'd rather our players just find their own space and their own ideas. It's usually a much more exciting process and it's usually much more creative and usually you get better stuff out of it.
JODY:On this album, it seems like the fleshed-out touring band of Cowboy Junkies played a greater role. Is that true and why'

MARGO: Well, it's just the nature of how we recorded it. We put this -- the band that you hear on this album was put together for the Miles From Our Home tour. And we added Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist from Over The Rhine. And it was just such a great band. I mean, it was just such a great live band. We had so much fun that we kept them together for the last two-and-a-half years of touring -- three years almost. And so it just seemed natural for us to record this album, because we were writing it, taking it out on the road and then recording it to add them into it and to do it live, just because this band connected so well on -- in a live setting. Like Michael was talking about Open, there's just a lot of that sort of interaction naturally going on without much sort of communication and people playing off of each other. So it seemed to make sense to try and do that in the studio. And the best way to capture a live band is to just set them up, put them mics up and let them play as opposed to breaking it down into pieces and trying to recapture what they can do live by -- in the studio by putting pieces together.

MICHAEL: And it's the way we used to make records. I mean, most independent bands, when they're starting off, bands, this is the way they make records because you can't afford the time to track specific songs. So you go in the studio and play and you're out of there in an hour because you can only afford the hour in the studio. And when we made Whites Off Earth Now and Trinity Session, I mean, those are live recordings. And the reason we were able to pull those off is because we practice on stage. When we'd tour, we'd tour the songs and write them and develop them and then record them. And even Caution Horses, too, is a very -- that's a live band in the studio. And that was our touring band as well.
So we sort of got away from that for a few records, which is fine. We'll probably do that -- we'll probably get away from it again. But we just felt it was time to do that again, to take a band off the stage and put it in the studio.

MARGO: And for me, it's like -- it's...the best way. I much prefer to be really familiar with the songs and into going to the studio and close my eyes and just sing with the band, as opposed to going into a booth and putting on my headset and singing to tape and having that focus on the vocals, you know. If I can just sing and think that nobody's listening, I do a lot more with my voice. I experiment a little bit more.

JODY:I'm sorry, Margo, everyone's listening.

MARGO: Don't tell me that.

JODY: I apologize. (Laughter). There will be people getting the album and pouring over the lyrics because I'm looking at some of the questions we got through cowboyjunkies.com. And there's some people intense about your work. And they have some intense questions. This question is for Michael and centers around the creative processes he uses when writing songs. On Pale Sun, Crescent Moon, there were inspiration credits attributed to William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My question is: How are your songs influenced by literature and are you actively reading as you are writing and recording' What other outside forces creep into your songwriting'

MICHAEL: Literature does influence a lot of my writing, just because I really love words. And that's what makes up literature, right' And I often will come across a line in a book or in a poem or an idea which I happen to be working on or else I'll think, that's a really interesting perspective on a subject that I might want to work on myself. And that will spur me on to write a song about it. Maybe even using that line as a jump-off point into my own song. And if I do that, I try and credit that, the line, because I think it's important. And it's also fun. I know as a fan of music myself, I like it when other people do that, too. I know Nanci Griffith does it all the time, too. She credits authors. And it's a great way for people to find good literature, I think.
And the other thing -- I mean, everything influences it. You know, certainly stumbling across a new -- a song by a new artist or even a classic old song, you know, putting on "On The Beach," Neil Young's On The Beach, all of a sudden you go: "Okay. Cool, right." You know, I might want to write something this vain or whatever. And you don't necessarily end up writing something like that, but it just gets your juices flowing. And that's -- everything sort of feeds into it.

JODY:And that question came from Richmond Powers in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. And the rest of his question is also a good one. "Do you ever foresee publishing a book of your lyrics with photography of locale or personage'"

MICHAEL: Never really thought about it. I'd certainly like to -- there's been a big call from a lot of people on the website especially to publish lyrics with chord charts. We should do something like that. Because we've never even compiled that. Yeah, I guess if somebody approached me and they had an interesting idea. That's kind of an interesting idea with photographs of locales which reflect directly onto the songs. It might be kind of a neat idea. If somebody approached me with that idea, I'd, you know, say, sure, run with it. But I don't know if I'd put my own time into it.

JODY: Another question from the website. This one is for Margo. It says: "Could you tell us why "Misguided Angel" and "Bea's Song" are two of your favorite songs to perform and what they mean to you'"

MARGO: (Laughs) Ooh - no, I can't.

JODY:And you don't have to.

MARGO: I don't know why. "Bea's Song" was one of those songs that we were talking about earlier sometimes Mike hands me a song and I just know how I want to sing it. And for some reason, I think a lot of women understand that feeling. I really understand where Bea is. I -- you know, I'm sitting by that river. I've been there before and know how she's feeling, just sort of lost and not knowing what's bugging her. And somebody: "Are you okay'" "No." Or no actually saying "Yes, I'm okay." You know, I understand her feeling of confusion. And I don't think that's so rare. I think a lot of people have felt that. "Misguided Angel" for two reasons. "Misguided Angel", to me, represents the band at a younger time when we first started off. So when I sing "Misguided Angel" today, I'm sort of brought back to the Trinity Church and back to that time in our lives. And that was -- it was such a, like, youth, you know. A youth -- the beginning of a band is like being a young person. There's this part of you that is so naïve and open and free and there's no worries. You know, that time was before record companies and industry. We were just a band singing and playing and never had any thought that so many people would be interested in our work. And I, as a singer, was totally naïve. I didn't even, at that point, accept myself as a singer. I mean, I didn't even think in those terms. So "Misguided Angel", to me, represents that time. And it will always represent that time, even when I'm an old woman, it will.

JODY:And that question came from Bob Holman in Atlanta, Georgia. He also asked, "What other Cowboy Junkie songs have special meanings to you'"

MARGO: Oh, there's a lot. "Where are You Tonight'" is a big one. What else is another -- I mean, there's so many. Of course, I can't think of them on the spot. "Escape Is So Simple" is one. You know, if I looked at the list, I could sort of point to several of them. But definitely "Where are You Tonight'" is another big one on my list.

JODY: Onething that at strikes me is that you always had that DIY [do it yourself] aesthetic from the first album, Whites off Earth Now. And after Miles from Our Home and the merger of the label that you were on at the time and the business situation, Cowboy Junkies regrouped and issued a couple of really interesting records that I'm fond of. And I thought we could talk about them just a little bit. There was the Rarities B-Sides and Slow Sad Waltzes. And always thinking of continuity, there was Waltz Across America. Let's start with the Rarities record. Did you always have things you wanted to collect'

MICHAEL: Yeah, for sure, you know. Especially our audience would come up to us and say, "You ought to do a collection of these B-Sides," because there were tons of them. We had tons of film projects and little weird recordings, which we'd released here and there on odd Japanese imports and things like this. And we -- and a lot of songs that we had dropped from records, not because we didn't think they were any good, but because they didn't fit on that particular record. So by the time, you know, we came to do that record, there was a ton of them -- and we still have a lot more actually. We can do a Part Two and we will one day.
But once we collected them all and we started to listen to them, we realized we had a pretty decent-sounding record. And we wanted to put together something which we could then launch our website with. We wanted something to focus on it. We wanted to continue to tour, without the label -- without a major label. So we needed a new release to focus on that. And this was really easy to put together. Everything was already recorded. It was just a matter of compiling them all and putting them together. So it was very successful for us. It did great. And it was a, it was a fun project for us. It really gave us a, as I say, direction.

JODY:And then, Margo, there's Waltz Across America. Cowboy Junkies had already done a double-live CD. How is Waltz Across America different from the earlier record?

MARGO: Well, the earlier live record is live recordings from various times throughout our career, various band combinations. Whenever we go out on tour, we always take extra sidemen. And they always are constantly changing. And so that's on that -- the 200 More Miles live album. But Waltz Across America is a collection of live recordings from the last two years of touring with the same band. The band that I was talking about earlier with Karin and Linford. And, you know, again, as I mentioned earlier, it was just such a great band and we had such a great time touring and we had so much great live material that we decided, you know, let's pull it together and put this out. Especially, there was an audience that kept coming back to the same shows again and again because we kept hitting the same towns and seeing the same people. So we figured, let's do something special for for these people that were always there and for us. I mean, we were just so happy with what happened.
MICHAEL: I think that that Waltz Across America record is a -- it's only available on our website. So not a ton of people have it. But it's a very good stepping stone to Open, the new record. I think people who are surprised by the sound of Open will -- they probably haven't seen us live in a long time. And if you hear that record, you really hear us for that transition. You hear that band really and you hear a lot of the -- sort of the more darker elements or the more tougher elements to our sound, which we've exploited live for a long time now.

JODY: Open really affected me as a listener when I sat down and listened to it. There's a song on there called "Small Swift Birds." It deals with the fleeting nature of life. I'm not going to get too heavy on you guys right now, but is it - do you think it's almost the human condition that we don't realize how beautiful stuff is until it's gone?
MICHAEL: Oh, without a doubt.
MARGO: Yes. I used to have such nice skin (laughs).
MICHAEL: Yeah, there's the classic line that youth is wasted on the young. And that's for sure. That's …
MARGO: Makes you sound so old when you start repeating what your grandfather told you, but it's true.

JODY: It's true, that's right. Well, is "Small Swift Birds" a reminder to yourselves, as much as to the listener, about that fleeting nature?
MICHAEL: For me, definitely, that's what it's written about. It's that, you know, stop. Stop, look, listen, definitely, definitely.
MARGO:The thing that intrigues me about the song is, you know, it's quite a heavy -- the lyrics are quite heavy because the message is kind of heavy. But it's written in such a pop melody. And so there's -- again, there's those two sides. And, you know, if you're not listening to the words, you think it's a happy little ditty going on. But when you start to read the words, you go, oh, wait a minute. Yet, again, it's a happy song.

JODY: And since we're talking about the fleeting nature of things, we have a question, again, submitted through your website from Po Artes in beautiful Pisgah, Maryland. It's a question for Margo. "I know the band has always operated as a team with each person taking their role, no matter how large or small in the overall success that's been enjoyed to date. Do you ever see a time when the group might separate to take on individual projects?"
MARGO: Oh (feigns crying). I try not to look at that. No, I don't see that, because I don't want to see that. You know, I, I see Cowboy Junkies staying together for a long time, as long as the music continues to be fun and creative and we feel that we're doing something new. They only way I see us breaking up is it just getting boring and it's just not real anymore. But I don't see that happening. I, you know there's -- as long as Michael keeps writing, we're okay! Just got to keep him healthy.

JODY: And evolving the music on record is one thing. How do you make the concert experience different since you've done it before so many times?
MARGO: Well, we have a new setup. As I mentioned, whenever we go out, we bring in new musicians, side musicians. And they're always really good musicians, a lot better than we are. So we learn a lot from them. Because of the nature of the band, we always ask them to bring their own interpretation into it. So when somebody starts to play, even some of the very old songs, with a new idea and a new attitude, it changes my interpretation of it or my direction with the rest of the band. It keeps it fresh and fun. And it also teaches us a lot. And it often leads us -- leads the music into another direction, which usually ends up on the next album. So from one tour to the next, you can sort of see the -- where the band is heading…when it comes to recording. You can see it in the live show.
MICHAEL: We also try and bring out a different repertoire. We have a lot of songs now. So we always try and make sure it's always fresh whenever we go out. There's a few in there that we play -- we don't necessary play every night, but it's in the repertoire. But, you know, we dig out some stuff we haven't played in years. And that's important to us, too.

JODY: I've always tried to imagine an artist before they go out on the road. Would you actually grab all 11 of your CDs and spread them out and --
MICHAEL: I do, actually. Yeah, definitely. I just go through them and, we haven't played this is four or five tours. And there's some songs you just get bored with. We definitely won't play that one this tour. And then some of them it's like they're exciting to play again. We've just been working this week, actually, on building a new repertoire up. And it's exciting to play some of the old songs like "O.K., it's going to be kind of fun."
MARGO:: It's interesting, too, because it's really the only time you ever listen to your records is when you're setting up the repertoire. I mean, you don't go home and put on a Cowboy Junkies' record. And you start listening to the old records and, "God, you know, that was a good record." (Lughs).You've even forgotten certain songs that you put on them. You know, because you've sort of focused on the other ones. You know, I forgot about that song or whatever. And so that's fun to put the repertoire together.

JODY: The final song of the record is "Close My Eyes." And it, it -- "Close My Eyes." The album's Open. We end with Close. Makes a lot of sense.
But, you know, as the listener, I'm wondering why the singer's closing her eyes. And it seems in some songs, the writer leaves a lot of spaces and it's up to the listener to fill it in. And is that what's going on here? And do some of your favorite songs have those spaces?
MICHAEL: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I do think it's important for the writer -- or a song to bring the listener into it, not to spell out every detail and this is, you know, this is the way I want you to think or this is the emotion I want or even specify the emotion. Obviously, you're trying to get a specific emotion without being too pointed about it. But "Close My Eyes," to me, is -- again, there's a duality to that. Closing your eyes can be closing your eyes as opposed to -- meaning that I'm not going to look. I don't want to see it. I want to ignore it. But closing my eyes, your eyes is also when you pray or when you wish for something or sing or whatever. It's a peaceful moment, too. And so that's really why I think that song's at the end. This song, again, deals -- it sums up a lot of the themes on the record where there's always that desire just to turn around and walk away and close your eyes. But there's also that desire to accept what's in front of you and revel in it and rejoice in it, really. And I think that's the key part to the song is the rejoicing of what you have.

(end of interview)

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