Of course the playing is important but writing and the establishing of what you are going for is prime too.

I'm just trying to avoid any sort of generic kind of music - I don't want to do generic jazz or fusion.

Aping what you've already done is just so dangerous and unrewarding.

Im better for it and I prefer to keep things simple and see what sounds I can get out of my head and hands rather than relying on a sound that someone else created.

Commercial record has never interested me. It's amazing I was in a band like The Police that had such phenomenal commercial success. Part of what made The Police what it was was that we didn't all come in with obvious mainstream musical tastes. We were a rock band and somehow we had to make rock music, but it was informed by a lot of things outside of the mainstream for sure.

I don't go out much to see bands. I prefer to be on stage.

Sometimes, literally within a few minutes, you'd be off this amazing roaring scene and back at your hotel room, staring at the patten of the wallpaper. It's very surreal. You're back in your room, and it's dead quiet and really weird.