What motivates us is always new music.
I feel it's my job to continue being a student of music if I want to continue being an artist and a producer of other artists. You have to keep filling your mind with other music. You have to be ahead of the curve.
When I was around 11, my dad took me to see Santana live, and then I got 'Sacred Fire,' and everything changed for me.
I'm not an Internet artist, I didn't get discovered on the Internet - I got discovered pushing my mix tapes on the street, walking on foot, going to parties, passing them out.
I'm always going to talent scout and try to find new artists to work with.
My dad liked a lot of Motown, but I didn't listen to it until my teenage years.
I came up not understanding that a lot of people didn't start to hear music until they went to college or were turned on by an older brother or sister.
I was very aware of Jeff Buckley. My brother actually bought me The Mamas And The Papas and Jeff Buckley for my birthday when I was in my early teens.
There is a lot of music in the world that I love that does not always get the appropriate exposure.
Amazon.com isn't the same as going down an aisle. The same as record stores. You'll go for Billie Holiday, and you buy Gustav Mahler as you're going out the door.
You know I used to listen to music a lot more.
My first favorite band that made music important to me was the Beatles. I was a little kid. I didn't know who was singing what song or who wrote what song.
Around '93, the radio started playing 'Loser' by Beck and 'Cut Your Hair' by Pavement, and then I got way into Pavement. That was kind of a gateway drug into indie rock. I got all their B-sides, and I got that 'Hey Drag City' comp, so I got into all those Drag City bands.
I think when you go to a store and you go to the Justin Timberlake page and stream it from there, that's great, but that means you went to the store. iTunes Radio lets you discover it without you having to think about it.
I just sort of grew up with music always in the background like a soundtrack. And it really hit me hard when The Beatles came along, like so many people. That got me started digging back further to Chuck Berry.
Some of my most important musical experiences were from a burnt CD with songs my friend downloaded for me at a terrible digital quality.
It was Jimi Hendrix that I first got into when Betty Mabry turned me on to him.
The film, 'Searching For Sugar Man,' has excited my music career.
I'm of the generation that discovered Aerosmith because of Run-DMC. They just looked crazy to me. They were the dudes in the Run-DMC video. That's who Aerosmith was.
I started listening to old school R&B artists like Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, and Donny Hathaway when I was in 6th grade.
I've just tried for all of these years to find the best records, the best songs that I could find that fit me, and I've had great people to work with all these years.
When I first heard Korn, they blew me away, and I've been a fan ever since.
The first music I ever got into was the '80s alternative bands that my brother listened to, like The Cure and The Smiths and R.E.M. and Fugazi. I can remember specifically saying The Cure was my favorite band back in second grade.
At 8, I got my first cassette, which was Def Leppard's 'Hysteria.'
People don't listen to terrestrial radio. They don't find their music that way. They don't get their news that way. They go to blogs. They go through Sirius/XM. They go through all these different places.
