VOX: What made you decide that Toad had run its course?

The end was simple. There was no big fight or anything like that. We were just trying to trick ourselves and keep it going, when really nobody was that into it. You reach a point where it's time to be finished and move on, and we were there, it was clear to us.

VOX: What's better about the solo gig and what do you miss about the band environment?
GP: The band, especially playing live, you have that deep connection. That's something that is very different, when you consider how long we had been together. With writing you can be lazier - I could write differently expecting the spaces to be filled by the musical parts. I don't miss the weight of writing for the band.

With playing solo, it's more challenging, and the reaction is more immediate. You can't be lazy in your writing and expect the holes to get filled.

In the band you have your bros, and you fight for things as a band, together. You bounce ideas off of each other and you want it to be productive. At least, that's the hope. For me, when the record was released, a couple of friends called to say congrats, but that's about it. No release party. On my birthday, everyone pretty much forgot. Before, I would call my brothers in the band and we would party.

VOX: What is your relationship like with your former band mates?
GP: It's pretty good. Todd and Dean have their thing going, and Randy is playing…we get along fine. Like I said, it wasn't a big fight or anything…

VOX: What's the creative process like for you?
GP: It's…for me it's a watershed, a flood, or it's a dry season. I can have nothing for a long period then a fertile period comes along.

VOX: What influences you nowadays?
GP: No idea…I'm in the midst of a dry season. [Laughs] In my last fertile period, my father had just passed away…the band had stopped…there were the business and financial stresses…the millennium lowdown…and it took time before I thought I was ready to move on with things and deal with them.

VOX: What's the story behind the album title?
GP: It made me laugh.  It's funny, in a very innocent child-like way.

VOX: What's behind "Men Just Leave"?
GP: Men just leaving. [Laughs] It's seems to be a cultural constant. There was a week where I had heard a number of stories on the subject, and it inspired me to write the song.

VOX: How about "Darkest Hour"?
GP: Not having…well, my father passed away from colon cancer three years ago, and I was alone in the room with him when he passed - it's about where that all took me. Parents dying is going to happen one way or another, but you have a choice about how you're going to deal with it - will it be a blessing and as beautiful an event as possible or will it be depressing and awful. It's all dependent on how you choose to deal with it, I suppose.

VOX: What are you listening to?
GP: Ryan Adams…he's a great singer/songwriter. Tim Easton…Radiohead…great stuff.