When I first moved to San Francisco, I didn’t write a song for a whole year. That’s by far the longest I had gone without writing since I was like…nine. It turned out in that year I wasn’t writing, I was just living the life I’d be writing about later.

 

Candidate for Cool was born out of that period when the novelty of moving to the West Coast had worn off and I finally got a chance to look at myself and ask, “Okay…how am I feeling?” The sound of the album was definitely inspired by San Francisco, and by that I mean the feeling of being entirely on your own and all the excitement and paranoia that comes with that.

 

Everything you hear on this record, minus a few sound effects, was recorded in my apartment. All the vocals were done in my closet. All the guitars were done in my bedroom. And all the crying was done on my toilet.

 

It’s not unhealthy to want people to think you’re cool. It’s unhealthy when you start campaigning for it.