I don't see us as a big media gimmick band. We don't have a cultivated appearance or anything like Kiss.

I grew up taking piano lessons and liking Wagner when I was in second grade.

You know, there is something I'm looking for when I'm writing. But I couldn't tell you what that is.

The song Venus de Milo, the whole subject of it is Love is a drug.

I can't remember ever being really bored. I find life very interesting, actually. I think some other musicians are always looking for something to give them an idea, but I find I have to reject 90 percent of my ideas because they don't live up to some self-imposed standard. That's also why I don't make a record once a year. I throw so many things out, and I have to have something to say.

I have a real soft spot for flying saucer songs and Frenkenstein songs. When I was a kid the first record I ever really liked was called "The Mummy", and the flip-side was called "The Beat Generation" which Richard Hell later re-wrote as "The Blank Generation". I thought it was the greatest thing I had ever heard. I didn't like Elvis much then, but I was very young. When I was a kid I used to play that monster all the time!

Practice? I never practice. I just write songs and take solos.