[He does, however, admit to being a true Type 1 perfectionist.] I am one of those people who is never satisfied, ... When I was a little kid, I made a spaceship out of a refrigerator box, and I was pissed off that it wouldn't fly. Couldn't be happy with it. It was pretty cool, too. |
[When he's performing live, Day says, there's a distinct difference between the big gigs and the little shows.] There's an intimacy lost on the big audiences, but there's also a sort of cool kind of buzz that you get from it too, like 'Wow -- there are 10,000 people here.' It tends to be a little more high energy, and you try to capture as many people as you can; whereas with a small show, you reveal a little bit more personality. I almost feel like I'm there hanging out with them or something, ... We mix it up. I do little intimate shows just because if I go a long time without doing them, it gets kind of weird -- like I'm playing at people. |
I drive around in my car and listen to [the demo]. And if I drive by people I know, I have to roll the windows up and turn it down -- or if somebody calls, I have to turn it off. |
The day it comes out, there's already things that you start to go, 'Oh, I should have done that a little differently.' You start to make a list in your head. I actually write things down -- what I'm going to do next time. |
There's an intimacy lost on the big audiences, but there's also a sort of cool kind of buzz that you get from it too, like 'Wow -- there are 10,000 people here.' It tends to be a little more high energy, and you try to capture as many people as you can; whereas with a small show, you reveal a little bit more personality. I almost feel like I'm there hanging out with them or something. We mix it up. I do little intimate shows just because if I go a long time without doing them, it gets kind of weird -- like I'm playing at people. |
Yeah, that was one crazy year. Basically my whole philosophy starting out -- because the question came up, 'Are you going to sign a label deal?' before anyone was really interested in signing me -- my idea was always 'Just go out and do it yourself.' The hardest thing for [a major record label] to do is to build a solid foundation, a base, which is like the first 50,000 records -- that core fan base. |