I like to create the music I hear in my interior. As a conductor, you have the ability to squeeze the sounds and interpretation you asked for from 50 to 80 people.

In 1972, I got my first electric bass and started playing the kind of instrument I play now. I found that the majority of musicians couldn't bear that. They are not used to listening to the bass because they think the bass is in the background to support them.

When I started to pick up the bass, it was purely by random chance.

It's better to finish at the peak or soon after it, than to wait until the audience notices a decline.

I played cello in my high school orchestra.

I am a classical music lover - not necessarily the contemporary stuff, but the old stuff.

On the other hand, when I give it closer thought, I realize I'm not enough of a dictator to conduct an orchestra because it requires a pretty awful person. When you read these biographies of famous conductors, they are all awful people who fail in their private relationships.