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.

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 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.

There was a time where I was the youngest one in any group, and now when I turn around sometimes, I'm the oldest one in every group. It just seemed to flip-flop one day - it wasn't a gradual thing.

Time plays a role in almost every decision. And some decisions define your attitude about time.

In cities like New York and Austin, there's much more of a social context for music than in other places.

We gave up on the idea of trying to make the record a good representation of the live performance.