I’m a live performer and I love playing live.

Why can’t you write a great pop song when you are 85? Maybe you can.

I can’t help it if I stretch the truth, not if that’s the way it happened.

I think quite a lot of people have a friendship or a love that’s gone like that and it never quite reconciles properly.

There are some songs where I’ll have had the music for 20 years and then finally the lyric will come through. That’s not common but it does happen. Then there are other songs that come really quickly.

I’ve got kids now and they will constantly pull you into the here and now – they are very present and very vivid.

True contentment comes with empathy.

The big change was reggae and hip-hop, which came along after Split Enz had started. When Bob Marley first visited New Zealand, he lit a fuse that is still burning very brightly. The Maori people particularly honor reggae music in a very big way. So there is a strong reggae scene and a strong hip-hop scene, especially among Samoans. There's still plenty of quirky stuff around. No one expects to make much money here, so it definitely does encourage an underground sense.

When you learn how to trust your feelings then you'll know how to recognize it - That part of you that needs no healing is like a swollen river rising. So choke me with a violent passion and drown me in a deep emotion. You've got to help me build this feeling. I'm swimming in a stagnant ocean. Been blinded by smoke and mirrors and crippled by a fear of tomorrow. If you don't help me shake this feeling, then I'll be marking time in Limbo.

Weave me a rope from this dark despair, from this dull-eyed pain... Weave me a rope from this endless night, from this distant shore... Weave me a rope that will pull me through these impossible times.