It`s a giant melting pot of the people that I`ve met over the last couple years. I think the production is a lot more pointedly stripped-down [than Rilo Kiley]. I kind of wanted to let the songs just exist and let the voices tell the story, rather than the guitar and production. I kind of wanted the songs to just kind of float around.

This is pretty epic,

I`ve won hundreds at the track, but I`m not betting on the afterlife.

It`s kinda creepy, right? I think it looks like The Shining .

It`s a different kind of thing opening up for Coldplay,

I originally recorded [the latter] for the solo record, and I wasn`t really confident with the way it turned out and I thought that the Kiley — as we refer to our band — would service it a lot better.

We`re pretty thrown off by it in a way, but really excited. We`re used to playing in front of our fans only.

I was kind of surprised after making the record, like, `Wow, there are a lot of god references here!` I didn`t realize I was thinking about that so much. There are a lot of cynical elements to these songs, and there`s sort of the expression of dissatisfaction ? but not without hope at the end. It`s about putting all that aside and having a little bit of faith.

Hey dudes ... this is a love song.

I was playing it for [my best friend] and I was like, `I don`t know if I should even bring it to Rilo Kiley, I don`t know if it`s necessarily appropriate,` ... But she convinced me to do so. It`s just kind of a soulful, honest ballad.