I thank the Creator of the universe to have discovered the discipline of music was the greatest gift that I could have been given, the possibility to be a student working in the world.
I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.
If you've followed us from when we started playing live in October 2010, you will notice that there has been numerous changes over the years.
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
Music is this divine thing, the closest that we can get to something divine. It's like this instinct we all own, and some of us have found a way to hear that music and write it down and share it with people.
Every time you come out with an album or a song, you want to feel like you're growing a bit in what you are and giving people something that they can feel.
I've been making music since age five.
It's such a weird process, songwriting, because you just have to feel it. There's no right or wrong melody or lyric.
When I was around 11, my dad took me to see Santana live, and then I got 'Sacred Fire,' and everything changed for me.
At 14, I was in my own little classic rock country band. Then, after high school, I started another band called Northern Comfort. That was based out of Chico, Calif.
Whenever I write a new song, it always happens when I come back from Europe or Egypt or something like that. It's always from travelling.
I just wanted to have a look at my whole musical career, get right back to when I started and why I started doing it in the first place.
When I was a young student, I only listened to foreign music, mainly rock music and hard rock. Then I surprised myself by discovering ethnic music. Now I like to listen to music from different places, and in many situations. Even when you work, some ethnic music calms the nerves.
I would join a band, learn from that band and be committed and passionate and bring my thing to the band. Then, when I felt like we were going to repeat ourselves, and I needed to learn more, I would go somewhere else.
I haven't had a perfect career. I've put some albums out that, looking back, I'm not super proud of, but there's also a lot of stuff that I am very proud of.
I didn't touch a guitar until I was 20.
If you haven't got help, all you can do is make good music.
When I started making music, I made music in a very commercial space and I didn't have room to really explore things on my own terms. It took me awhile to create a little bubble where I could explore other things, and new things. When I did that, my tools were songwriting and arranging.
I got a guitar when I was six and, instead of learning other people's songs, started to try to write my own, even at that young age.
I played guitar all my life, all the way through the Yardbirds, but I knew that for me this was going to be a guitar vehicle, because that's what I wanted it to be.
I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.
Making a record is an intimate experience. A good producer can get things out of you that you can't get out of yourself.
After 12 intense years of rock music, I was happy to get away from making a record and going out on a tour. When I did it, I wanted to feel inspired. After a while I finally had my fill working on other people's music, and I started coming up with music on my own and said, 'This could be for me.'
I will never stop making music.
I listened to a battery radio, old country and pop stuff. Because I was singing all the time, my dad bought me a $7.50 guitar.
