I think that sometimes almost the bigger tragedy in a weird way is all of the future imagined creative projects that could have happened that didn't. I feel the same way about lots of brilliant people who die young, kind of senselessly especially.

I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.

I don't ever want something that I didn't do because I was afraid of it or I didn't think I'd be good at it - within reason. Obviously I'm never going to be able to play the trumpet.

I can go from one extreme to another, from playing at the Sydney Opera House on the Songbook tour to shows with Soundgarden at Voodoo Fest, all in a week.

Any way that you can get the end result is valid, whatever it takes.

If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving.

I started as a drummer, so I sort of took on singing duties by default. I had sung backgrounds and some lead vocals from behind the drums in different bands that I'd been in, and I'd gotten great responses for the songs I would sing. I really started pursuing the possibility of being a lead singer based on the fact that I was working a full-time restaurant job and then playing gigs at night, hauling drums around. One day, it just dawned on me that, 'Hey, I could be in a band and be the singer, and it would be a lot easier!'