John Popper

It was a good record, but I was already getting bored with the, we had a system of writing where somebody would bring a riff,

And we'd make a song out of it, and then I'd sit in my car and make words to that.

We'd put it on a disc, and I'd sit in my car and write words to it.

And then they'd be working on the next song, and then I'd have more words to write.

I was getting like an assembly line, and it started feeling like we were writing the same song over and over again.

And so for North Hollywood Shootout, I said, let's try something different.

I'm going to be the complete lord and master of this album.

Let me just direct it entirely.

Well, instead of having utter autonomy, then every decision I made was questioned.

Sure.

Because these guys aren't robots.

They're thinking musicians.

Right.

And they've got brains in their heads.

So it completely didn't work.

I mean, we got some good songs on North Hollywood Shootout, but it wasn't the effect of trying to get different sounding songs written.

It became just more trouble.

So I didn't quite know what to do.

And then I put my own money in and I went down to New Mexico to see my friend Jono.

This is the guy who, when we first came to New York and playing at the Nightingale's Bar on 2nd Avenue, he was the house band there.