When I was growing up, I would go hang out with older guys at night in blues clubs.

I grew up with synthesizers and weird, spacey music-hip-hop, R&B, modern rock-that I heard on the radio. That's influenced the way I play music. It's natural for me to go with what I feel. If I didn't let that other stuff out and stuck to a certain format, I would feel like I was missing out on something. I'm just enjoying my ride and being who I am.

I've been called 'musically schizophrenic,' and some people think that's a cool thing.

The guys in my band buy instruments and sell and trade them. But if I have something I hang onto it. Everything is sentimental to me.

I am the type of artist where you can't tell me anything. I have always been that way. I am right. I don't need any input.

Most of my songs start out as being very aggressive and guitar-driven.

When I got my first guitar, I played along with everything I heard that had guitar in it, like the Ramones, Nirvana and Sublime, as well as whatever hip-hop and R&B stuff was on the radio.