I think it's quite jarring and exciting when you see someone in the thrall of being completely transported by the music they're sharing with you.

I think it's quite jarring and exciting when you see someone in the thrall of being completely transported by the music they're sharing with you.

On a very technical level, I am a geek who is interested in the intricacy of rhythm playing, so I like comparing and working out its details.

The closer you get to the source, the more you begin to understand its essential nature.

There actually had been a tradition within English music of the '60s of people looking eastwards, maybe in quite a naïve way, but nonetheless, you had musicians like George Harrison or Bryan Jones recording the musicians of Joujouka in North Africa.

The human condition is what it is. We can see beauty and wonder in the world, but we also face imminent death and uncertainty, and we often need to sidestep the idea of time and communicate with each other, not with words but with a sense of community and union. I don't want to make an overreaching statement, but I think that's the function of culture.

I think entertainment is a perfectly noble occupation.