jess`: What was the inspiration for 'Telegraph Avenue Kiss'?
Geoff: Telegraph Avenue is a place in San Francisco. My wife was living [there] for a while. It's about a few things. It's a song about how difficult love can seem even when it's really good. And it's also about how difficult it is to write about love without making it into like a music box. So the first verse is sort of the image of a music box because once you write about a woman, then suddenly you tend to make her into a dancing ballerina in the middle of the music box and you force them into the song. It's like a form of entrapment. The second verse is about by singing about your own love, you become like a caged bird because in a way, the singing of the song itself lets everyone know what's going on in your life so it's like your trapping someone else and you're trapping yourself. In the end, I wanted to repeat images of spinning because I feel like there's so much that keeps changing when you're in a relationship so I really liked the idea of a merry-go-round that you can't get off. You know you should let go, but you're afraid of what would happen if you did.