"I think we are all in deep pain. I have been, at least. And when I was, I understood how difficult it is to respond to pain in a healthy way. How hard it is to heal. It is difficult to be wise when you are in pain. “What happened to the heart?” is about being in pain. And either accept it or run away from it. Or become destructive. Or understand it, like the last song on the album, “Invisible Wounds”, is about. Now is the time for us to address the invisible wounds, and it is as much a personal responsibility as about the world community soon having to address things. Just think about how many people are not doing well here on earth. We are aware of how unfair everything is, but it is impossible to be empathetic without crying every day, so we build a tough skin to endure it. I think we have built too much skin. [I have not personally] but I am aware of it. I am very sensitive, and there are many things that make me tired, things that other people don’t think much about. It’s because I have such a head.

When I write about things far away, it feels very close. And things that have nothing to do with me feel personal. I am captivated by and engaged in other people’s stories. But with this record, it’s actually a lot more personal. I went through a pain that was very heavy. I had to take time to be human, eat waffles and such, drink beer and sleep."

The moss garden at Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto, Japan.