The avant-garde makes more sense to me.

I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of going out there and playing football.

I like what the future holds. I don't like thinking about the past.

I've just recently started doing the promo bits for the new album, and the funny thing is that the people who come to talk to me about these things seem to be getting younger. It's like the people who like the music are all young kids and they're on top of you - they know all about what you're doing, and they're excited and animated about it. So it's a lot of fun.

I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

People sort of know me for that solo piano music I did.