I like things matching. I have an upright bass, a drum kit and a grand piano that's the same color. I tend to overthink things.
Man screams from the depths of his soul; the whole era becomes a single, piercing shriek. Art also screams, into the deep darkness, screams for help, screams for the spirit. This is Expressionism.
When I sit down and try to write lyrics first - I've definitely done that in the past - but most of the time, they come off as a put-on, or less genuine than you would think. I'm the kind of guy that if I overthink a sentiment or I overthink a statement, it's weird.
Well, I have to have some type of visual in my head to finish a song. I can't finish a song if I can't see anything.
Everyone just screams and screams and screams. I have accepted it as real now, but it still feels surreal.
I bought these pink sticker things... and I would write things on them, and I wrote, 'I will write an international smash,' and shortly after, it was when we did 'Monster,' and it was an international smash.
All I'm saying, as a fan, is I'm tired of the same song for 30 years. Can't we change the message a little? You've arrived. You have a black president. Every white guy in a commercial doesn't have to be the idiot and every black guy in a rap song doesn't have to be God's gift to the world.
To finish a song is the best feeling in the world.
Rarely do I finish a song lyrically before I have a musical idea there, but then again, rarely ever would I finish a song musically before starting the lyrical ideas. So a lot of the time, they come in tandem, or they just come at a glance.
I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way any more.
As an artist, you tend to gravitate to the opposite. I know, when I finish a song or an album, I'm interested in doing something completely new. It doesn't always happen, but that's the idea. My poor fans - I don't know if they love that or hate that.
Learn a lot about the world and finish things, even if it is just a short story. Finish it before you start something else. Finish it before you start rewriting it. That's really important.
It's to find out if you're going to be a writer or not, because that's one of the most important lessons.
Most, maybe 90% of people, will start writing and never finish what they started. If you want to be a writer that's the hardest and most important lesson: Finish it. Then go back to fix it.
The sound levels on stage were so loud with all that constant banging and smash, smash, smash; it did untold damage to the fine nerve endings in the inner ear, though it is worse in the left, which is the side of my snare drum and the monitor.
When I do solo material I definitely tend to overthink it. I make a lot of rules for myself that are a little bit arbitrary and... it's just painful.
I was competing in an IPC World Cup race, but the finish area was short and I came across the line with my head down and went straight through the fence. It was only because the Italian team doctor leapt out to grab me that I didn't smash through the café window.