On this episode of Transmissions, Darren Jessee joins us for a freewheeling talk about influences, lyrics, creative process, and his time on the road with Ben Folds Five. We discuss a wide range of artists—Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill, Gordon Lightfoot, and spend a lot of time reflecting on Neil Young, who Ben Folds Five toured with in the 1990s. Along the way, we inspect the notion of how songs change and shape our views, the tenor of the culture wars back in the ‘90s, and the value of occasionally overdoing it.