It's glorious to be able to go onto the Internet and hear any kind of music anywhere, from anywhere, and get it instantly. But there's also something glorious about having a record with a sleeve and looking at the artwork, putting it on the turntable and playing it, there's still something romantic to me about that.
It's cool to play the guitar, but to me it's even cooler to scratch a guitar backward and forward, to manipulate it with a turntable. Guitars can't do that themselves.
For my birthday this year, my girlfriends - who knew I'd just inherited my dad's turntable - gave me a carton of albums like 'Blue Kentucky Girl,' by Emmylou Harris, and 'Off the Wall,' by Michael Jackson. It's all stuff we grew up with. I mean, you can't have a music collection without Prince's 'Purple Rain' - it just can't be done!
I grew up around electronic instruments. To me, the turntable is an electronic device. At the same time, I had access to drum machines and keyboards through my uncle; then track recorders into computers. At an early age, I was messing with computers more than most hip-hop musicians.
For me the greatest revenge of all is having a happy adulthood, waking up in my gorgeous turquoise bedroom in the morning beside a person who really inspires me. That's the best revenge a girl-loving girl from the Bible belt could possibly have. And, importantly, it's healthy.
Somebody showed me a picture of some event I went to back in the day, and I was really going heavy on the turquoise jewelry, and it was not good. I was like, 'OK, I guess that was a phase that needed to happen.'
When I got started, I was a sideshow. At my first Consumer Electronics Show, in 1977 in Chicago, people came from all over the floor to see the 'lady programmer.' They had me dressed in a turquoise lab coat with my name embroidered on the pocket.
One night at a party, a really drunk guy came up to me and said, 'Whoa you look like Yves Saint Laurent' because I was wearing a turtleneck. I'd love to track that guy down and tell him that he gave pretty good casting advice.
When I'm not shooting, I go to school every day. When I am shooting, I have tutors on set helping me.
Audiences just naturally hate me on screen. I could play a role in a tuxedo, and people would think I was rotten. You can do much more with a villain part.
If people find me suitable for a role, which equally interests me, then I will think about it. Having said that, there is a perception that TV actors can't act in movies. I would like to break this myth if and when I decide to do films.
I wanted to be involved in TV and film in some capacity, so a compromise, because acting seemed unrealistic, and so risky, was to get into the production side. And it was a really fortunate, smart move looking back on it, because it gave me perspective on another side of the business.
When I've done TV and film, when it's offered to me, I loved doing it, and I would do it again, but the ins and outs of auditioning is - that's time away from my kids.
I hear a lot of bad TV commercials that try to sound like Where It's At. That pretty much turned me off from using the electric piano for a lot of years.
Modelling was never a career option for me; it was always a hobby. I was modelling while I was pursuing my B.Tech, so the obvious choice after finishing my studies was to do a job. But while I was modelling and doing TV commercials, I really loved being in front of the camera. I enjoyed the shooting process.
Many of you might already recognize me as the guy in the question-mark suits appearing in the late night TV commercials and on the cover of educational books and CDs.
I had plenty of offers to do sponsorships and TV commercials, but it's just not in me. I would love to get that out of me, but I just don't feel comfortable with it.
Variety is the thing for me to be able to work in theater and be involved in more films and TV movies that say something.
I've stopped watching TV news. They couldn't pay me enough money.
When you're confined to a TV series, and you have to play one character, it can make you insane. But it didn't affect me. I got out in time.
