Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.
I have a passion for music; I love music. But I also have a passion for money and paying my bills.
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
I've had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life. I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you've really Joeled it up - there's some good periods of Joel; it's not all hot cheese. But I can't judge anyone else for their cheese. I've deep-sea dived in the Gouda.
My music library is all over the place. I've got A$AP Rocky; I've got Billy Joel. I've got, like, Celine Dion albums that I just worship. There's all kinds of different stuff.
In Denver, all we really had was pop radio, so I grew up on all that late '70s pop stuff - Billy Joel, James Taylor, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Steve Miller and Toto. Great love songs and really hooky and melodic music - I have all of that stuff in my heart.
I'm born and raised Long Island. Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Ben Gibbard - melody-driven guys... They shaped me, molded my music.
Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music.
The '60s was one of the first times the power of music was used by a generation to bind them together.
It's not like I'm the first man ever to do this, y'know? You gotta go back to Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr. Those are people who've done music well and movies well, and y'know, Frank Sinatra and Elvis and all these dudes have made the transition. I don't know about Elvis, 'bout doin' 'em good, y'know? It's nothin' new.
I love 'White Christmas.' That's one of my favorites just because I love the music. I love the story, Bing Crosby. It's just one of my all time favorites. And it's hard to have a Christmas without seeing a little bit of Jimmy Stewart and angels running around town.
I'm a binge writer. I work in the music business fulltime, in artist management and developing songwriters and recording artists, and so juggling my job I carve out as much time as I can on the weekends.
My ambition, a long time ago, was to be a film music writer. A compromise then was to be the guy who wrote songs for a band and played slide guitar. Then the singer didn't turn up for an audition, and I was the only one who knew the words. That was it - bingo! Life took a different course.
I would like to do a music person's story, a bio. I've wanted to do Aaliyah forever. But I don't want it to always be like, 'I'm singing again in a movie.'
I would be happy to be a footnote in my dad's bio. I don't care about trying to be famous or prove that I didn't need him. Even if they say I'm riding his coattails, I'm confident enough in my own music that I don't worry about that.
When I was growing up, I had a nanny who would always play 'The Sound of Music' and 'Bye Bye Birdie,' so I was always listening to that stuff.
Learning music is a birthright. And you have to start young.
I can only think of music as something inherent in every human being - a birthright. Music coordinates mind, body and spirit.
You know how many men make music without biting each other's heads off? Why do we have to do that? There's room for everybody. I really couldn't care less what the next girl's doing. If she's shining, that's good. It's not taking away from my light.
Sometimes I use my jokes as building blocks for larger bits. I like to draw and play music, so sometimes I do those things along with the jokes.
