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

It's weird - I can listen to a guitar player or a rock record over and over again and really enjoy whatever the guitarist is doing. But when I do it, after 30 seconds or so I get really frustrated and can't understand why I, or anyone else, would want to write songs.

For me, the tabletop is an easy way to eliminate the possibilities of chords, modes, melodies, and harmonies. It kind of confines you to this other sound sphere. I know anyone facing this kind of dilemma could always just find another instrument more suitable to their needs, such as a sampler or synthesizer, but I figured I have a guitar and amp so why not just use them?

My day job finds me in a double-bind often, and it's an ideal position for anyone interested in becoming highly reactive.

I'm often a firm believer in "the simpler the better" approach and it's evident in my guitar setup.

A lot of the projects I've allowed myself to get involved with over the past few years have made me a bit unfocused. It's just so ridiculously easy to do things here; if you're part of the scene, in five minutes you can wind up with two gigs within three days of each other. There's too much going on here and that's a bad thing, to me. Unless you want to jam, and then it's good.

My setup for a live performance lately has been just guitar and synthesizer. Sometimes I only bring one. The guitar is in pretty bad shape and isn't sounding the same. Most of the time my live approach has been pretty different from recording.