LucyBondurant

Are most of your songs autobiographical, or do you create protagonists? And if the latter, do you revisit them in subsequent songs? (Like Michael Stipe has admitted to doing, particularly the "Daysleeper"/"The Lifting" character.)

I was sleepily listening to the radio on my walkman as I rode the bus to school the first time I heard "Secret Smile". I was already a fan of Semisonic, but I knew in that second my being a fan would be lifelong. Such an amazing song.

Semisonic is basically the soundtrack to my formative years- from convincing all of my friends to buy Great Divide after getting a copy from my dad's music distribution buddies to getting frustrated that everyone boiled the band down to the (admittedly great) "Closing Time" to blasting "Chemistry" in my Wrangler as I drove around campus in college- I just wanted to say thank you. (and thanks for being so very gracious on Twitter- you're brilliant to your fan-followers, truly.) But for all the "how was it to work with" questions, I have to ask about one of my favorite songwriters ever- Carole King. "One True Love" is so beautiful and just as soul-searching as it is light. What was it like to write and sing with her?