People fall into patterns at fast speeds, when really, to have a clear musical thought – the kind of musical thought that makes a melody work – our brains just can’t think that fast. At a certain point, you’re going on automatic.
If anything unfolds, it’s supposed to.
Well, I don’t even know how to drive in this life, so I’m pretty far from ever having the life of being a stuntdouble. I liked- I had an Evil Knievel doll when i was a kid, that’s about it!
It means basically I’m using the synthesizer more to change the sounds of other things rather than to use it as the source of the sound.
Right now my taste is going more for things that are organic where the people are using all the sonic possibilities in interesting ways.
But I think I know just as many creative people who’ve never taken drugs in their life as I do who have taken a lot of drugs.
Anybody who’s a guitar player that’s spent that time with another guitar player, there’s nothing better than that.
And if a few other people come along who discover my music because they in some natural way come across my music, cool.
So when I feel the spirit upon me it’s something I don’t take it for granted, and I don’t think I’m solely responsible for these things.
I’m going through a phase where I’m really accomplishing a lot of things and in that is everything I’ve learned.
I think you get people taking things to excess in all fields, doctors, lawyers – -it happens to all kinds of people.
I think a solo moves forward the way a song does, because it’s reflective of the chords that I’m considering as I’m soloing, and at the same time I’m going as much out on a limb as Frank Zappa used to, in terms of just going crazy on the instrument.
I consider my music to be Progressive Synth Pop, which says nothing about what it sounds like, but does describe my basic approach.
I combine aspects of many styles of music and create my own musical forms by way of electronic instruments.
I think an analogue synth is an extension of the natural world.
And for me the only way to live life is to grab the bull by the horns and call up recording studios and set dates to go in recording studios. To try and accomplish something.
I don’t have an extensive background in theory, but the amount of it that I’ve learned, I’ve applied, so I have a vocabulary of melodic and rhythmic relationships. And that’s all theory is – it’s symbols to help you identify those relationships.
Rock guitarists usually do not wish to think trains of thought about anything but their own guitar playing during a long solo, and I could not play this way if I were not able to divide my attention between my ever changing musical environment and my instrument itself.
What really helps me is being able to record my albums at home – I have more fun experimenting that way, as opposed to working with an engineer, in which case I have to deal with the humiliation of doing take after take, and that can get frustrating.
So I use a tape recorder a lot to record ideas.