“I don’t think I approach my songs differently from other artists. You get a big picture of it, and you imagine the song and hear and feel it, and that big picture is like a snapshot, and it comes to you as fast as it takes to click a camera.
“The idea was to create this giant wall of lush chords, all of these distorted guitars. I used a seven-string, which allows you to play chords you just can’t do on a six-string. So I had this wall of sound, but underneath that I wanted a rushing underbelly of what could be called polymeters.
“The construction of the rhythm was a feeling, and if you truly feel a particular way when you create something, it’s impossible for that feeling not to be represented.
“For the second part, I wanted a long melody, one that sounded endless, but I didn’t want it to sound like a solo. These things sound impossible, but they’re accessible. It’s a very carefully orchestrated part. I had to get very forensic with it. I worked on every phrase. When I broke it down, I asked myself, ‘What are you going to do here that you’ve never done before, never heard before, but it makes you feel good?’ And that’s why the phrasing is so intricate.
“It was a lot of work, but I’m very happy with how it came out.”