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'Blue Monday' is a dance track with a hint of melancholy.

In the morning on Sunday, a drum is sounded at about 8 o'clock.

Most great records really start with the drums.

It took me three weeks to write the 'Rhapsody in Blue.' I had always wanted to write something blue and Paul Whiteman inspired.

I bring up 'The Heist,' and you can almost cut that record down the middle between songs where the beat came first and the words came second, and songs where the words came first and the beat came second. It can start with a vibe, a beat that drives a story, or it can start with a story and then trying to identify the tone to tell that story right.

My template for most songs is 'Is this inspiring?' and with the blues it so often is.

I think the greatest records we've ever heard, from Zeppelin to Purple to Sabbath to The Who, were all recorded in the studio live.

Well I had a musical background, but I still didn't know a lot about drums at the time.

The first set of lyrics for the first songs I ever wrote, which are the ones on 'Pretty Hate Machine,' came from private journal entries that I realized I was writing in lyric form.

I'm a big techno fan. I love that thumping kick drum. We heard a version of 'Lost in Love' and it was thrash metal. It sounded cool!