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

As a drummer my job is to reproduce what made the people bop their heads when they first heard the album on the radio, or when they watched the music video.

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 shined off high school band, marching, jazz studies. At the time I was too cool for school, I had this professional gig and I was going home taking a shower and heading to downtown Hawaii, Waikiki.

My dad taught me not to overplay, to think about my parts when I play, even in a live situation.

I immersed myself in the police work and I guess drumming wasn't even a hobby, just something my body naturally wanted to do, tapping stuff.

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.