My projects are just side effects of what I obsess over, what I chat about, what random things pop into my head, what I dream at night.

What most people call "chaos" is actually incredibly predictable and maddeningly boring - greed, close-mindedness, warring over power.

I'm a rock-and-roll drummer, so my job is to create chaos.

When I'm playing best, I'm just thinking about the music, just interacting with what my bandmates are playing.

I've got childhood friends who are working for non-profit foundations, or who are running for state senate and doing things that actually do fight evil in this world. And what am I doing? I bang on some drums in a rock band. I try to tell myself that by doing that, I'm fighting evil - which is completely absurd. Music is not equipped in any way to fight against anything. Other than, I guess, it could fight against silence.

What's great about going on tour is that it immediately unburdens me of those self-centered misconceptions. Because suddenly, with these songs you've been obsessed with for months, you're playing them for hundreds of people.

When it's time to write a new song, anything that you thought you understood last time is pretty much pulverized.