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WOMANROCK: You not only play a number of instruments, but make use of a variety of musical modes and genres. Where did all this eclecticism come from? What sort of training have you had? MCKEOWN: I think it comes from trial and error, and from not being afraid. I don't mind being bad at something. I'm not the world's greatest drummer. But I don't m... ind that; it doesn't keep me from being happy playing drums. The same goes for other instruments. I don't mind-for lack of a better word-sucking. And I feel like in the process of not being good at something, you can write a lot of interesting music, and come to know each instrument in a natural way. I kind of like to be new to things, so in looking for that feeling I've come to pick up a lot of different stuff. I did take piano lessons as a kid, but I wouldn't say that anything I use now is from those lessons other than the ability to, you know-use my fingers for music. WOMANROCK: When you were writing these songs, you laid down all the tracks yourself, then brought in studio musicians. MCKEOWN: Yes, I set everything down on my four track, then handed that recording to my studio musicians when we were ready to cut the final product. WOMANROCK: How close was the final product to those initial tracks you set down? Was it the same basic material, just more professionally played? Or did the material evolve? MCKEOWN: It depends on the song. There're a few songs where the demo really achieved something great, and it was just a matter of-not reproducing it, necessarily, but reinterpreting it using the sonic palette of the album. But some of the songs changed a lot, which was really fun. You know, you can make a suggestion to a billion different musicians, and they'll recognize it as something they can do, or as an idea that they can work from. So "To the Stars," for example, had a drum beat that played out in a certain way and was based on a particular bass line. And Matt Chamberlain listened to the drum machine beat that I had, and I could see his mind turning, and he ...Read More