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

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.

As a musician, we should always want to strive to be better, we can always make improvements. It's easy to get comfortable and it's easy to find your voice and your sound, but I always wanted to be better.

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.

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.

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

It works for me, the way I play drums and the things I do but I also would like to know proper technique. Mainly for health - to last longer, be able to play longer.