I'm hoping that when people hear a live Dawes song on YouTube or at a show and then they get that studio version, hopefully they're excited, rather than saying, Oh man, I wanted completely new material I've never heard before.

I think that the oversaturation of music market right now will eventually start taking care of itself, where some bands are like, We just don't want to do it anymore, and other bands say, Things just keep getting better. It just depends on where you bring your joy out of it. We're lucky because we are happiest when we're onstage.

Dawes kind of, on purpose, were like, Let's realize that we're going to make less money, but let's try to get as many fans from as many kind of demographics as we can. And I feel really lucky that our music exists in this world where we can open for artists like M. Ward or Bright Eyes, and then on the same side of that open for Alison Krauss.

It's not a lot, but we have 8,000 people following us. I get the biggest kick out of it, to hear words that I wrote and chords that I wrote being sung by somebody else. It's a true honor, and it might sound intense, but it's one of the most rewarding parts of the songwriting experience.