Q – On your first two solo records you worked with a lot of musicans who also worked on Matthew Sweet's records at the time. The notable exception is Televison's guitarist Richard Lloyd. Was there any particular reason for this?
A – I think you might have that the wrong way around – my record came first – Fred Maher and I assembled that band. But to answer – Not really. There was some tension between RL and Quine, who didn't rate him. I think RL's strength, after finally seeing him with the reformed Televison, is his solid playing and holding the songs together with riffs and rhythms, allowing Verlaine to be Verlaine. Well, in those days, that was my job. I must add that I was blown away with how great RL was within Television when I saw them. And there are many other great guitarists out there that I didn't work with.