I use music as a medium to talk to people.
It's not like I'm writing full songs or full parts and setting it aside for Slash because, generally, I like him to make the first move and hear where he's coming from and what his concepts are, and then I build from there.
I find in music there's a space and a language I can use to express things in ways I can't describe conversationally.
When you improvise alone, you don't risk a lot, but doing an improvisation when you are two is even more difficult because you need to listen exactly to understand what is going to happen.
Most musicians count at the beginning, and never count and talk to their musicians after that. They only talk to them at the end of the song. But I would count with them and talk.
It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo.
When I work with artists, I give them a general guideline of what my vision is. Then they're going to speak their minds on how they view it, too. The song that defines 'Neon Future' the best is the title track. I wrote that with Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun. It's through his words. We had an amazing songwriting session together, connecting.
Not only do I sing to him, I sing entire conversations. You become Jerry Lewis.
I have always needed other musicians to bounce off.
There's something about live players that you cannot get with machines: With live musicians, you can strike a groove, you can feed off each other... And, even though somebody might make a slight mistake, it's all real!
I saw it as a challenge to play with Pat and we put hours and hours into it, usually on the bus. The trick was to find something that we both wanted to play within our different styles which would add up to being greater than the sum of its parts.
I believe that music is a spiritual language. My everyday self is pretty mundane and boring, but when I'm making music it allows for me to communicate a kind of transcendence that I can't communicate otherwise.
I think music naturally wants to be played with more than one person. There's a surprise element, and you don't know what it will be, and it's up to that other person's energy to help create this third thing.
You can have all sorts of relationships, but there's something with musicians working together where you can have relationship that can just continue to grow in a beautiful way.
Silences between movements are employed only in order to bring the opposing duo to the fore.
Music is a language, you see, a universal language.
The break down for kids is communication. Music helps bring that bond.
I've tried to force a solo before, but sometimes it's like, 'That thing don't really fit, man!'
A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas.
I can't see us getting into, like, long solos.
But duets are a lot of fun, I'd love to do another one.
Andy Timmons is someone I've jammed with many times over the years, and we always have a great chemistry when playing together.
A lot of the way I sing is playing off other musicians. It's what I love to do the most.
What inspires me is not so much the music as the opportunity to interact with composers. I think that has driven everything I've done.
I think, in music, you're always hoping that you'll have a like-minded audience and that the music you like making will appeal to them, too.
