The latest thing that has caught me by surprise is Maryanne Amacher. I like sound that affects the listener physically. Traits such as complexity or simplicity don't really become a factor then. It's just the sound that I pay attention to.

As a kid, image played a huge part. I'm sure most kids find the image of the guitarist exciting.

For some reason, I deliberately allow for simple things like three chords to mystify me. It's kind of fun that way. Like Billy Gibbons' guitar sound isn't the way it is because he uses a quarter as a pick or anything as simple as that; it's because he's in touch with a different sector of the cosmos that we know nothing about.

The latest thing that has caught me by surprise is Maryanne Amacher. I like sound that affects the listener physically. Traits such as complexity or simplicity don't really become a factor then. It's just the sound that I pay attention to.

I only use the computer for editing. I don't have an eight-track, otherwise I probably never would have bought a computer. When I first got my Mac, I was exploring its possibilities and had fun with all of the sound hacking software, but I'm not interested in that approach. I toyed with the idea of releasing a 12-inch of all the stuff I did early on but good sense prevented me from doing so.

For instance, we have the largest Polish population of any city except for Warsaw, and the largest Lithuanian population outside Lithuania. More Italians, Greeks, Irish, Latinos, Serbians, and Croatians than you can shake a stick at. Chicago has it all, I don't know why I'd ever leave.

I have no interest in getting a rig that might clean up my sound or a delay pedal that might allow me to arpeggiate something bouncing off a string, and I don't plan on ever getting the grounding fixed on my guitar. I really like raw sounds.