"It's a secret club, people that have a certain sense of humor, and it doesn't matter whether it's a ..." — Ron Mael

So much respect is given to artists who are doing things that seems sort of timeless and legitimate. That kind of legitimacy and timelessness is to me sort of the opposite of what pop music should be.

Even when something's funny, it has to be well-written, too. So we are really aware of the craft part of pop music. We really have a respect for the genre and feel that it's valuable. It's legitimate in its own way and it has as many possibilities as any other kind of music.

The one factor that determines how people get along best is a shared sense of humor.

We kind of have a cranky side of ourselves, so when people get upset about what we're doing, we kind of feel that we're on the right track. But it's really difficult using humor in pop music. Sometimes it can appear that you're frivolous or there isn't any depth in what you're doing. But we always tried to have humor anyway.