The quality of artistry is the capacity to assume innocence at will, the quality of experiencing innocence as if for the first time.

Music can be transformative, utterly transformative. The act of music is utterly transformative.

I recommend my students not to be professional unless they really have to be. I tell them, 'If you love music, sell Hoovers or be a plumber. Do something useful with your life.'

My life as a professional musician is a joyless exercise in futility.

I would like, with the sun shining through the window on a crisp early-autumnal mid-morning, with a sufficiency of Monster Cappucino flowing in my veins to prompt minimal sentience, to declare my view for the record that Drummer Jokes are a cruel and pernicious form of humour introduced to the world by under-humoured persons lacking in sensitivity and concern for other drummers.

There is a difference between being a timekeeper and keeping the pulse or being in step with the pulse in the band.

I couldn't concentrate on music. So I made the choice to give up my career as a musician in the frontline to deal with the business.