Suicide was such a formative band for me, so influential in the development of my taste. They're one of those bands that operated in absolute isolation for so long that they developed a completely unique world view.
Certain punk bands were influential because I thought, If they can do that then I can .Hanging around those bands was how I started my first band - In Praise of Lemmings.
I like to say that I do covers of my own songs. And I have about a dozen bands all over the world. That's no exaggeration. I have a South African band, an Australian band, Swedish bands, English bands, American bands. They're all notable musicians, too.
When I was a kid, I was playing in various bands - amateur bands, garage bands, weekend bands, you name it, around the area. At some point, I just wanted to try the whole 'Beatle tribute band' thing, so I found a local band that was doing that.
When I joined the band, I hadn't been introduced to a lot of these bands on the scene - no emo bands or punk bands. The only band I knew was My Chemical Romance.
You get a taste of playing in the playoffs and what that's like, and it's a completely different world. You get a taste in those meaningful games. You get that taste, and you can't get it out. You want more.
The Commonwealth is a mixture of developing and developed world, in which the developed countries were very influential and their policies hold sway most of the time.
The most significant bands I played in when I first got to New York were Bobby Watson's band, Roy Hargrove's first band, Benny Golson's band, Benny Green's trio, and probably the most significant out of all of those, for me personally, was playing in Freddie Hubbard's band.
I was in several bands before I joined Judas Priest. Being in those early unknown bands were the stepping stones, really, so I learned a lot in those short few years jumping from one band to another.
I was just obsessed with bands like Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Everclear - those were shows I was going to. A lot of those bands definitely inspired me. Those bands' songs are powerful enough that they can last forever.
The coolest thing for me to do was listen to Pearl Jam's 'Ten,' Nirvana's 'Nevermind,' or Soundgarden and play along to it and think about how awesome it would be to be in one of those bands and be up on stage. When I'd close my eyes at 13 and dream of being in Pearl Jam or one of those bands, it was exactly like how it is now with the band I'm in.
I named it that because more or less each person from the band used to play in other bands and when we left respective bands other members from those bands all sort of changed round. It was a big sort of move thing. I got it from that, I suppose.
We're a unique band, so why have a generic producer lumping you in a box with other bands that sound the same?
Truly, learning appears to be a reverse geometric progression with experiences at one hour, one day, one month or one year dramatically more influential and formative than later experiences. As has often been quoted, 85% of brain development takes place by age 3, and yet we spend only 4% of our educational dollars by that point.
When I find material that gives me a natural yet unique character point of view and has well - developed characters throughout the script, it makes the hairs on my arm stand up.
We were teens in the Eighties, and that's the kind of music that we all grew up on. When you're in those really formative years, from, like, 13 to 19, what you listen to is so influential, and I think that's just part of our being now.
My Ready-Mades have nothing to do with the 'objet trouve' because the so-called 'found object' is completely directed by personal taste. Personal taste decides that this is a beautiful object and is unique.