Was that the first song you wrote for the record?

No, not the first one. I had a couple others, but once I wrote that one and realized that I wanted the record to be about those two people I went back and rewrote other ones a little bit to make them fit. Having it be a concept album makes it more interesting for me, and it gives me permission to not have to make all the songs different. I had a couple of songs like "King of the Jailhouse" and "Goodbye Caroline," and thought, What the hell is this about? It just seems to be such a specific scenario, but I didn't know the back story. So it was interesting for me to say, What would the circumstances be? Who would these characters be?

Does the record unfold chronologically?

Loosely. They meet at the Virginia State Fair in the early '70s. He's a boxer and she's dying to get out of town because she thinks she'll be a different person if she's in a different place. So they set off together, and he's got a drug problem, which starts to get more apparent.

What drug?

I don't really have a specific one in mind. You know, alcohol and whatever else is around. The great thing about a concept album is that you can be as specific or unspecific as you want, choose which details you want to cover.

Why did you set it in the '70s?

I had the image of these people meeting at the fair in the early '70s because it's this really perfectly white-trash image for me.

You have a thing for white trash?

Oh, I have a real weakness for white trash, a certain kind of rednecky thing.

You have become very interested in boxing. How did you get into it?

I don't know. I just got interested in it and I had a friend who boxed and he gave me a couple of lessons. I really like fighting, sparring, that's my favorite part. The fitness part doesn't really appeal to me. I like competing but I'm not really about winning, necessarily. I like fighting with someone when we're both doing our best, and when I get caught with a punch I'm just like, Good shot, way to go. It's funny sparring with girls because we always apologize. I mean, yes, I'm trying to hit you in the head, but I'm sorry for succeeding. Sometimes we spar with guys, because if they're bigger and more skilled they can work on defense while we throw punches at them. It's very funny to see the girls smacking these guys around and apologizing for every punch.

The character of John is based on this friend of mine who is a drug addict, a semi-recovering drug addict, and he's a boxer, and so that's how I got interested in boxing. But my personal interaction with him was also my real education in real hardcore drug addiction.

Was he the source of the forgotten arm image?

Yeah, he's a real character. That was his name for a move he made up. He just came up with it on the spot when he was explaining the move to me.

You also wrote quite a bit about drug addiction on your last record, "Lost in Space."

But that was drug addiction more as a metaphor for other kinds of internal problems. Everybody knows what it's like to be obsessed or preoccupied, and have behavior where you always think, Why do I do that? Every day I vow not to eat a doughnut in the morning and yet I can't seem to stop. Everyone has their vices like that. But the thing with drug addiction is that it's this sort of secret world. If you're not a drug addict nobody else understands. On "Lost in Space," it was a metaphor for those kinds of ideas, that kind of secret shame and alienation. I don't think I really talk about addiction as much on this record, even though in a more serious direct way it is about it.

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