You know the type: loud as a motorbike but wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight.

It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we'd play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.

People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap and it's good water. But they're okay paying for it. It's just the mindset right now.

I spring train in the winter, around early December...

I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice - anything just to get a paper bag. And I'd write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.

Whoever said that artists shouldn't pay attention to their business was probably someone w/their hand in some artist's pocket.

When people say stuff like, "Oh, that's soft rock. I don't listen to that," I find that elitist. It's music-racist.