Quotes from Ted Dwane

We're a restless bunch, and we have a lot of energy - we're never going to stand still.

We were proud of our first two records, but the parameters were pretty narrow. We didn't have full drums, for example. There were just so many limitations to that setup, and we really fully explored them.

Self-awareness is something that we actually actively avoid.

I think it's a great story, the story of Babel. I think anyone can direct it as an analogy for a lot of different situations.

None of us had really any interest in doing a sort of 'Babel 2.'

I play the drums really, really badly.

Being a bass player in a band without a drummer for seven, eight years has been kind of weird.

I've always thought of faith as an acknowledgment of not being the biggest thing in the universe.

I don't know many artists who've managed to go a career without bringing these things up. Saying the word 'God,' 'Jesus' - it happens in a million rock songs.

Self-awareness is one of the biggest enemies to creativity.

When you write on the road, you are restricted to the instruments around you, whereas in the studio, you can plug anything in and try it.

There's definitely a negative correlation between the higher the profile and the enjoyment of the gig.

It's impossible to tell how you're perceived. I think it's important not to think about it too much, because it really means nothing. Some people think we're a rock band, and that's ridiculous, and the idea of us being a folk band - you sit in a pub in Ireland and hear those guys play, and you're like, 'Yeah, we're definitely not a folk band.'

We're not the first band who went to public school.

You look at the instrumentation, and you can't really argue that we set out with commercial aspirations. Banjos and things like that are not part of some formula for global success. But it felt right, and I think there's some value to purity of intention.

There's a point with every record we've made that the album starts to assert its identity, and I think that's kind of what happened with 'The Wolf.'

If you told me in the '90s that I'd be in a chart battle with Green Day, I probably would have just laughed at you.

We were thrilled when we were nominated for best new artist at the Grammys, but we were even more so when they asked us to play live.

There's not a lot to hide behind when you make the sort of music we make.

As humans, we're such a discontented species. We're always trying to further ourselves, and you get all the way to the moon, and then it's just discontent. You want to go to Mars.

Our spiritual home is definitely the U.K., but we have such a breadth of influence, and America's a huge part of that, as I think it is for most bands.

Ninety percent of the time, I'm sitting in a bus driving through some place like the Colorado mountains and thinking, 'Wow, we're not in a pub in London anymore.'

Touring is something I do really well.

It's strange to think about the scathing reviews 'Sigh No More' got and then consider that we could win best album a year or so later.