ISAAC BROCK

I'm a huge Cure fan. I love the Cure. The scales being tipped to when they weren't on a major label compared to when they were seems pretty meaningless. I had the good fortune of having them go before me and seeing their careers, musically at least, lose something. Like a novel written by a dead hand.

Even when I was a kid, I always showed up late for school every day. It got to the point where they had my late slips filled for every day of the school year in advance, so all they had to do was fill in what time I got there.

When I do write, it happens really easily. I'll just kind of sing along to whatever I'm playing, then find a line to build off of, then sit down and write. When I do write, I take care of business!

I don't much like things to go by somebody's name, like the 'Bob Jones Group Jam Band.'

If I find myself just not feeling like writing songs anymore, I think I'll drop it. There's enough bad, insincere music out there. I don't need to contribute to that.

The guy who kind of identified as my dad was my dad's brother, who was the second person my mom married.

Portland hardly got to have an identity before that identity became a joke - I live in a joke. Seattle at least got to wear out its identity before it became a joke.

I like Modest Mouse. I'm our biggest fan. And enemy. I won't waste people's time by putting out a Modest Mouse record just because. That's fair, right?

As frustrating as it is to not have a record come out, I have to make sure that it's worth putting out. I have to be trying to say something, for one. I have to not oversell what I'm trying to say. I can't 'Bono' it.

I didn't mean to live in Portland. It was kind of an accident - I mean, the equivalent of my car breaking down there and me being like, 'Well... I guess this is what I'm doing. I just can't find a better alternate.'

If I start working on something, I get a little too driven.

I made a point when I made the Ugly Casanova record to not write a song and then say, 'This is a Modest Mouse song' or 'This is an Ugly Casanova song.' The people who were open to it not being a Modest Mouse record liked it.

'Float On' was a fine song, but I was still writing the lyrics on the last day we were working on it and deciding if it was something we wanted to put on the record.

Most of the best music in American history was made by people with no options.

I don't think I ever write songs involving politics, because they get dated way too quick. Any view you have can usually be made into something more general, and that can stand throughout time.

A more sagacious or more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist.

It is far from my inclination to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves [to the English forces] will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences.

Estranged from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you must be re-annexed to the dominion of France from which the provinces of Canada were wrested by the arms of Great Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, for no other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from the oppression of a cruel neighbor.

They are men; and have equal rights with all other men and to defend themselves and their property when invaded.

I remember the last time the Grateful Dead played in Seattle, at the Seattle Center. I was living there, and after the show, I was walking to work near there, and I'd never seen so much debris. There were mountains of garbage.

I don't read a lot of rock magazines for the most part.

I watch the same cartoons over and over again. I watch Adult Swim. I watch 'Futurama' repeatedly.

I've gotten into surfing a bit. I can't stand up for more than five seconds, but I like the fact that I can paddle out into oblivion.

Now we've gotten accustomed to reality shows where the goal is to see people acting foolish.

Science, science is great. I love science. With any luck, it'll save us all.