I'm realizing this more and more that it's one thing to get involved with your own political beliefs and stand behind you believe in personally.

I almost rely on other people to say, "Hey, you ever hear of this band?" And I'll say, "Oh, I've never heard of that!" And I listened to them and thought, "What the hell?"

Real thick strings - your hands start to get fatigued. As much as you practice, and as much experience as you have, and as long as you've been playing, there is a fatigue point during the show, as with anything that's physical. So I wanted to basically pace myself better.

I'm realizing this more and more that it's one thing to get involved with your own political beliefs and stand behind you believe in personally.

We auditioned a lot of great drummers; every one of them was world class. We had a lot of fun playing with each of them and had some great jams. With Mike [Mangini] it was just something really special about what was going on.

It's hard to answer that from my own perspective because when I'm playing I know where it is coming from and the sources.

We're not the kind of band who writes an order abundance of songs and picks from them, we usually write for the album.