You run your own record label, DCD2, and always seem to have a million projects on the go – does your mind ever switch off and take a break? It looks from the outside that the cogs are always spinning…
"No… it’s always spinning and I need to spin it in the positive, or else I can go to the negative. I just overthink everything. I just think and think and think, and I don’t really process out loud, so no-one knows. How do I quiet my mind? Meditation. That’s helpful. Another one that’s good for me is being with my kids because you gotta be present. If you’re just doing [band/work stuff] you’re not present – it’s another version of being on your phone, and you’re just doing it on the internal hard drive."
Where’s your happy place?
"My parents have a cabin in Vermont, and there’s no phone service, and it’s just nature. I’m not even a nature person – I’m not a really big camper, but I like feeling disconnected and I feel like I’m at a different time there, it’s just simpler. I like that. And I like hanging out with my kids, because they’re just insane. The stuff they say and think is just so mind-boggling."
Looking back on your life and career so far, is there anything that you wish you had done differently?
"Um… there’s stuff that I would do differently now, but I think that everything you do gets you to where you are. I think I would be a kinder, more patient person. I would also tell myself not to sweat the small stuff so much – I just think I used to worry about everything all the time, and I’m sure 15 years from now I’ll be coming back and telling myself something else then too."
There’s a line in M A N I A track Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea that goes, ‘The only thing that’s ever stopping me is me’ – in what ways do you think that you hold yourself back?
"I have a lot of big ideas, but I don’t execute them all well. It’s a little bit frustrating. Either Kanye [West] or Patrick [Stump] said this, ‘It’s a bit like I’m standing in front of a canvas, with all this paint and no brush.’ Sometimes I just can’t do it, and when I describe what it is to people, sometimes it ends up right and sometimes it doesn’t. I also think that my friends are sometimes like, ‘He’s too bold,’ but inside I’m like the most fragile person of all time. So it’s just weird… but I process it all on my own, in my head, so I think people don’t always know."
Does that make you feel like you could just fall apart at any time?
"I read somewhere that everyone in the UK – I think – is two bad decisions away from being homeless. The message was ‘have empathy for homeless people’ because you don’t know what’s going to happen. So I think in that way maybe I could fall apart, but I think more so now, I feel fine being myself."