“This was such a great, fun project. There’s so much freedom when you let go, when you stop thinking about people’s expectations, and you say, ‘OK, what do I really want?’ So that’s what I did on this album. It might have been a little more of the same in some ways, but it was more evolved simply because we evolve.

“I enjoyed doing all of the in-between projects, like the live records and compilations that I started to put together. All this time, I was still with Sony, and they were doing a great job with getting the records out there.

“Plus, I had gotten my touring chops together. When I went out on the road with Sex & Religion, I lost a fortune. We sold out every place, but I was spending way too much. So when I got with [former manager] Ruta [Sepetys], she set it straight. She encouraged me every step of the way to just make the music that I wanted to play, because I’d never have that chance again. Don’t compromise at all. That’s the way that I felt, but it really helped to have somebody saying that to me every day. Ruta was an angel.”