Permanent Smile

Bill Callahan — the guy is such a genius, you know? He’s so peculiar in the way he approaches music [that] the last thing you’d want to do is try to deflate that. With Bill you just stay out of his way. That’s the most amazing thing about Bill: The first time you hear an idea of his, it doesn’t really make sense, but the second time you hear it, it just seems so brilliant. It’s just like, “Oh my god, I never would have thought of that!” and that’s kind of what makes Bill, Bill. And the wrong producer or the wrong engineer or the wrong person playing with him could very easily go, “That doesn’t sound right,” and try to talk him out of that or deflate that in some way, and that would be the worst thing you could ever do to Bill.