So you’re working on both children’s songs and adult songs simultaneously. When you’re writing a song, does it just naturally fall into those different categories, or is it something that you try to do?

I have a lot of musical things floating around, like little instrumental do-dads that I refer to once I have a lyric idea I like. Like if I’m washing the dishes, I’ll think of a title that I like or a topic that I like, and I have a title line. Usually I can tell pretty early on if it’s going to be a funny thing I could use on a kids album. For example, the “Hey Matt” song, I thought it would be funny to sing about being a bad singer and have somebody teach me and give me singing lessons. And I thought that would be more funny on my kids records. So it’s really subject-matter-dependent. I have songs on my new adult record that aren’t as overtly silly, but there’s still a lot of humor in them. I don’t really do it intentionally, but I definitely put a lot of humor in my songs.

Can you talk a little bit about the recording process? As a listener, when I hear the album, it sounds like you had a lot of fun recording.

Definitely. I do a lot of it myself in my own studio. I think there’s only one song on that that was done at a real studio with a live band, so a lot of it is me doing it alone, pretending that there’s a great, fun vibe in my little studio. I try to get the song really solid, lyrically and musically, and put together really well. I try to record it fast and keep the first takes of everything, just so it all has a loose kind of feel. I was actually talking to my mom about one of my songs, and she was like, “You’re such a perfectionist.” And I was like, “I’m not a perfectionist. I mean, listen to what I do. It’s incredibly sloppy!” And she was like, “Yeah, but every single sloppy thing is exactly how you want it.” And I never thought of it that way. I found it very insightful of my mom to understand that about my music. I think that it was actually true that there’s a level of sloppiness. It is sort of a fine-tuned thing. It usually takes a bunch of tries for me to get the tone or the vibe of the song exactly right on the recording. But I do like keeping it loose and sloppy.

Are you going to tour this record at all, any kind of solo run?

Not with this record. I really don’t love touring for kids, you know? I’ve done some of it. Like when my first one came out, I did a few shows. It’s just a very different thing, performing for kids versus making an album that might entertain them in a car or something. It’s not really my thing. I really enjoy making the records, and I really enjoy getting notes from people who say their kids love listening to the music. I just don’t like actually being on stage in front of a bunch of children. They’re hard as hell to entertain, too. They want to hear songs they know, and they also just want to scream and go crazy. So they don’t really get my little jokes and stuff like that, so I sort of stopped doing it.

What are some differences between being in a band like The Walkmen and doing your own solo thing, especially regarding writing, recording and playing live?

The performance of it is so different. When I was with The Walkmen, especially at the end, there was no nervousness at all. When you’re with a gang, with your five best friends, and you get up on stage in front of a room full of people and there’s a shitty, embarrassing moment and you just play badly, you go off stage and laugh about it and have a beer and just don’t think about it. But if it’s just you alone on stage, it’s hard. It’s a very different feeling. You can’t spread the blame around. You can’t just laugh about it. It’s hard, but when things go really well, like when I get off the stage after a really great show, when I’ve been up there by myself on stage, I’m like, “Fuckin’ hell, this is the greatest thing ever!” The highs are very high and the lows are very low.

I talked to Hamilton pretty recently about his project with Rostam from Vampire Weekend. He was talking about how going on the road is very different, like you were talking about, and how when you guys went on the hiatus, it wasn’t like there was any bad blood. It was just kind of people wanting to do their own thing. You guys had been playing together so long, basically since you were kids, and logistics and people starting families and things started to get in the way. Do you have the same feeling towards the hiatus, and have you guys ever talked about getting it started up again?

I feel the same way about the hiatus. We did it for so long with all of us. It was just so much touring. And before that, I was in another band with basically the same guys, and we had been touring too, so it was just so much of it. And I had kids. My first daughter was born in 2012, so I didn’t want to go and tour anymore. I just desperately didn’t. What I do now is I have my studio, and I go to my studio every day and just write and release as much stuff as I can. Thankfully, I’ve gotten really lucky with syncs and licensing stuff, so it’s kept me going. It’s allowed me to do that without going on tour. So I’m just hoping the keep doing this and to keep getting lucky with stuff. Because right now it’s working, and I’m kind of shocked that it’s working. I’m excited. It’s good. As far as us getting back together, I’d be shocked if we did it again. Maybe when we’re in our seventies.

I>Heaven was one of my favorite albums of that year, and I guess I’m just interested that you guys called it quits when you had just done something that was so good. Is there ever any twinge of wanting to go back to that?

No, there’s really not. I’m never nostalgic about it. I probably will be at some point, but no. I don’t really have any longings to go back to it. We always felt like we were struggling. We were struggling throughout the whole time that we were working. There were periods that we felt like we were really cookin’ and things were going great, but there’s a lot of it that was a real struggle.

You mean like financially or just creatively?

Yeah, financially. Not creatively. Creatively, we were always feeling pretty good. But financially, keeping the band moving forward is hard. We were always shoved in a van and driving all over the place and getting flat tires. People look at The Walkmen and they’re like, “Oh, The Walkmen are a successful band.” I guess we did pretty good, but doing it, we always felt like we were struggling. So we recognize that we did better than other people, and that we had a career we can be proud of. With Heaven, we realized we have kids now, and our lives are suddenly not a lot easier. And we just decided to explore not doing it anymore.

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