My job in MTV was my first real presenting job and I had no real idea what I was doing, but you kind of learn just by doing.
I think the next big thing in music, and it's kind of because I come from the tech industry, is actually, I think it's the platform... Spotify is incredibly interesting. I think the platform is becoming the star.
In the '80s, I was the only game in town, I was the only one getting that kind of exposure in any rotation on MTV. Now with internet culture it seems like everyone is doing music parodies. And they're not all good!
The Saints are doing a good job adjusting. I think their focus is on trying to make the best of their season, but also to try and help the people of New Orleans in the process. From everything I've seen and heard they are doing a good job of it.
Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.
Winning the MTV search and becoming the face of MTV News was so refreshing. I travelled the world, constantly meeting interesting people, and I quickly learned that this kind of news was more fun and made me feel less sad.
I've been enjoying showing the music I perform to these people who have not heard it before. I think it's kind of interesting in a scientific kind of way. I don't mind either way the outcomes of the shows I've played, I just genuinely find it interesting seeing people's reactions.
I love MTV. I watched 'Beavis and Butthead,' 'Wayne's World,' 'Yo! MTV Raps.' And they used to have music videos on there. When I got the chance to be on MTV, I took the first opportunity.
It's not my job to keep myself in the news. My job is to keep performing. If I spend time promoting myself or being concerned about my image, I wouldn't have the energy to do the work that I'm doing. I love what I do and I'm good at it too.
The person who's in the Zen monastery, who's doing a kind of poor job at meditating and a half-ass job cleaning the gardens is not doing very good yoga.
The first album that I bought was the Nirvana 'MTV Unplugged in New York' album.
I heard a lot of different kinds of music. I heard country music, I heard jazz, I heard symphonic music, opera, everything you can think of except very modern music.
You never know why or when the next job is coming. I actually like that. It's kind of exciting. I don't punch in. I don't have a 9 to 5 job. When you do work you're lucky enough to go to interesting places and meet mostly interesting and talented people, so it's really a great job if you can work.
I was doing music tech as a subject and learned how to use Logic Pro and that's when I kind of had a platform to put my ideas on. It all just went from there.
The Internet makes it easier to find good music I would have to say. The radio stations that play the kind of music you were talking about, I don't think me and Curt Smith would be that inclined to listen to. It doesn't really affect us and I certainly don't remember the last time I watched MTV.
Nada Surf and Harvey Danger are good bands. I think they've just stayed true to why they play music in the first place, it's just because they love doing it and they love each other and that's the impetus for doing it, not trying to keep singles on the radio and on MTV.