"Stars That Speak" (track eight on the disc) made me think about an artist looking back on what he'd done over the years, and realizing his accomplishments.

Yeah that's what I was trying to get across. I wrote that back in 1980. I was in Paris, and I wanted to experiment with the idea of recitation. You know, sort of reading poetry over music. So I had the idea of the artist looking back at his work and wondering where the time has gone. At the time there was also the very romantic idea about being in Paris and writing poetry, but there's also something about being there that is inspiring and I was trying to tap into that as well.

Phil (producer Phil Shenale) asked me this time what other material I might have floating around, and there was this and a couple of others. He'd been wanting to put this on an album for a while, but I kept putting him off. This time he said Willy, your voice sounds just right for it -lets keep put it in. Being in Paris when I wrote it there's the whole romantic thing about "being in Paris," and like I said earlier about admiring what Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel do with lyrics and sound, I wanted to make the attempt.

The final cut on the disc, "Mountains Of Manhattan," tell me about that. But first who is playing the flute?

I was, it's a Native Cedar flute you know [Me: Yeah I recognized it - I have a friend who makes them.] Oh, okay, so you know what there like. While I gave Phil a whole bunch to work with and he used it with the voice. This was another recitation piece, and I guess it's about acknowledging who you are.

When I was kid we were lower-middle class right? And we were taught to hide who we were and nobody talked about our heritage. It's only been recently that I've found out about the Iroquois blood in our family - so there's that to it as well. But there's the power and the mystery of the spoken word that I love in it as well. I did a little of it on Crow Jane Alley on "In A World Gone Wrong," but "Mountains" and "Stars That Speak" have much more emphasis on it. And I think they worked out.

I thought they were two of the most powerful pieces on the disc; you've got a great voice for recitation.

Thanks.

Pistola is being released in Europe on February 4, 2008 and you're going to be selling copies of it direct from your website. Are there any plans for distribution in North America?