I pretty much isolated myself away from drums. I stopped looking at Modern Drummer, I stopped looking at websites.

My brother (Bruno Mars) is as smart as he is because a lot of things he's doing, creativity wise, our Dad used to do. Things my father used to do visually and musically. I see a lot of my father's influence in both of us.

Even though sometimes you feel like you're hand cuffed you're really not because it really takes skill to play the music properly.

I watch YouTube and other peers of mine. There's a lot of things I can't do and also I'm very unorthodox, I want to work on my mechanics and technique.

For me, the hardest part is taking lessons, and it's hard teaching an old dog new tricks, so part of my re-teaching myself is opening my mind too. I just want to get better and I think there's nothing wrong with wanting to get better.

I was living in different accommodation and it was never in a place where I could set up my drums and play, so my drums would end up back in their cases and then in the garage. In the end I got used to the drums being locked up, I went a good eight years without touching drums.

I am self taught. My dad threw me in with a drum set at the age of four and I figured it out!