While I was writing the songs for 'Fuzz Universe,' I was immersing myself in Bulgarian Female Choir music, Baroque lute and violin pieces, Johnny Cash songs about trains, cows, mules, and mining coal, the Bee Gees, and Ronnie James Dio.
I still the love classic period, but also the baroque period, and even 17th-Century music such as the music of Monteverdi. He's one of the greatest opera composers. He was the one who really started the opera.
I'm involved with a baroque opera company here in Italy. I write some of their booklet material, comments on operas. I also write for some baroque opera festivals because this music is my real passion.
We have a lot of fun. There are no holds barred when it comes to writing music for us.
I've been a lot of places, and my wife, Denise, she likes a lot of the fancy restaurants. I'm more of a basic eater. I still go into Cracker Barrel. Those are the kind of people who like the kind of music I'm making.
I've had some terrible jobs, but working in a kitchen at Cracker Barrel is probably the worst I've ever had. I was a grill cook - awful! It wasn't the smell, it was the people. The music, too. We had to be 'country fresh,' so they played this terrible country music eight hours during the shift. It was a bleak existence - a very dark time.
I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.
I've always loved to prove people wrong. I want to be able to cross color lines, because in music, there really is no barrier.
There was no match for Barry White. His music is just going to live forever. It's not limited to disco or soul or hip-hop or anything.
People understand my message is positive, and at the end of the day, I'm just here to make music that I enjoy and that other people enjoy. I think that's why I have such a loyal fan base.
I want to play music when I want, write a song if I want or watch a baseball game if I want.
It's not the music you hear in your head that other people are going to hear. You have to be able to make it true enough to the image in your head, and that's where technique and technology come in, for sure, and knowledge. It's not true and will never be true that someone who knows nothing can sit in a basement and make great music.
Don't believe bands who say it's all about the fans and they want to give their music away for free. The result is they will continue to live in their mother's basement.
I have to say that Adam Levine is truly a daring young man to go on Twitter to bash Fox News. He's so rebellious, so subversive. I mean, for a musician, seriously, could you find a more predictable stance than that? He's as edgy as a hacky sack, which also describes his music.
People bashed Drake based off the fact that he didn't suffer. Who cares! Do you like the music or not?
Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.
One of the basic things about a string is that it can vibrate in many different shapes or forms, which gives music its beauty.
Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It's so much going on in music right now and somebody has to make a difference.
My earliest memories of rap music was mixed with my earliest memories of reggae music. They were big sounds around the way, heavy bass lines, strong messages, definitely.
I love my music, so I want to produce, write, and serve my music. I've had to learn about EQ frequencies and programming and space and clutter and how to be a better piano or bass player - everything.
