her songs

I think of the tracks as characters, like my friends. I get really, ’This is the track with lilies that are dying, past their prime, and black and kinda sexual,’ or whatever. And then another track is the happy one with all the kites and childlike energy. So I’m pretty stubborn, once a track is that character, I will stay with that character. I’ll say things like, ’No no no, this is not a pink song. It’s more like this section is narrow and the chorus is wide, there’s a lot of space. I can stop them if they’re going down the wrong road.

The Guardian, April 27 2007