Jack White is making it clear he’s not interested in the diary-style songwriting that dominates a lot of modern pop. In a new interview, the former The White Stripes frontman said he finds the trend of turning personal breakups into hit songs — something often associated with Taylor Swift — a little dull creatively. White said he doesn’t enjoy writing directly about himself or publicly sharing painful personal experiences in his music. His reasoning is pretty simple: if something in his life is truly difficult, he doesn’t want to throw it out there for strangers online to tear apart. Instead, he says he takes pieces of real emotions and filters them through fictional characters, using storytelling rather than straight confession. According to White, putting his experiences into someone else’s perspective actually helps him understand them better. He also talked about why his music rarely takes direct political shots — even though he’s outspoken in interviews about political figures, including Donald Trump. White said that if he ever tackled politics in a song, he wouldn’t name names. He’d rather create characters and metaphors than deliver a direct political lecture.