I try not to become friends with musicians, but life happens and dinner happens and going out happens - it becomes interwoven in L.A.

If the chemistry between me and the artist is good, then that's half the battle.

I was never in the business of trying to put my name out there - I was really focused on music and records and being in the studio.

It's been said to me that I'm self-destructive because I'll walk away from things that are good.

The goal is to make something that sounds new and different.

It was very punk rock for me to take a stab at working with Justin Bieber. I don't know how people portray that, or 'Climax,' for that matter. But for me, it was the most adventurous thing I could have done at that exact moment.

I was a snot-nosed teenage skater at one point, who listened to only punk records and hung around people that had that idea of what is okay to do and what isn't okay to do.