Glorytellers has electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, and drums, so the rhythm parts are fundamentally different from Karate. I play a lot of the bass lines on with a thumb pick on acoustic guitar, so it's a different sound than Karate songs, and it's more of an acoustic band.

Glorytellers is a three-piece, what do you enjoy about a band being a three-piece and how did this particular line-up take shape?

I hear a lot of music as being too cluttered, and I hear a lot of music with extra instruments that are only there to add color, and that don't have any real function in the song. I like music that is really locked together and in which all the instruments have a role in making the songs go forward, and to me a trio really facilitates that approach. My music gets cluttered very quickly with just three instruments, and I usually don't feel the need to add anything else.

Also, guitars can make so many different sounds that can change the mood of the song. I have a small collection of guitars and amps and I'm kind of a geek about guitar sounds, so I'd rather use a guitar to achieve what I want instead using instruments that are less familiar to me.

If you don't mind me asking, what hearing problems did you develop and how has it affected the music you're making now?

Tinnitus. It did affect some musical choices I made at first, namely picking up the acoustic guitar for the first time in a while to write Glorytellers songs, but now I can't say it affects my music that much. These days I play acoustic guitar more than electric (although I still love to play electric) and the Glorytellers music has taken on a life of its own, so I don't think my hearing problems come into play that much.

I do like the stage volume to be around 85dB which is considered quiet in the rock world, but I've always preferred this because instruments sound better at this volume, and things start to sound like hell when they get louder, especially electric guitars.

I noticed you worked with engineer Andy Hong on this record, how involved did you yourself get involved in terms of producing and mixing the record?

Very involved, but Andy was a fundamental part of it. We mixed everything together, we also mastered it together with Jeff Lipton at Peerless. (Jeff did the actual mastering of course!) I couldn't have made the record without Andy, and I think if I had worked with another engineer I probably never would have finished it. Andy's one of my closest collaborators and is really fundamental to the music I make.

Lastly, do you have any plans to tour Europe in 2008?

Yes, we should be there in September, possibly in the UK Oct or Nov. Looking forward to that!