Riffs Quotes

"I wrote my first song when I was maybe like four years old. I was always wandering around the house making things up. Back then, I learned a lot about singing from listening to Mariah Carey. I would sing to her (albums) and try and get all her riffs and stuff. I would be in my room for hours until I could get it right, it helps being an only child because I didn`t have anything else to do!"

I`ll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can`t underestimate band chemistry.

We`re bringing AC/DC-like riffs, not a lot of whining like some rockers do. We don`t like to bring rock down with sad stories, we just want to bring it -- that`s what rock is about.

Great melody over great riffs is, to me, the secret of it all.

I wrote all these heavy, tuned-down guitar riffs and I asked him if he wanted to play the guitar solo on it, and he was pumped to do it, ... That was the first time I appeared on a record with Dime, and now this. I just wish this wasn`t the way it had to happen.

When I was younger, I would have told you it was my genius, but now I don`t believe that for a second. Music just comes out of you, it flows through —� it`s weird. If you think about it intellectually, how does someone come up with two hundred riffs over their lifetime? There are only twelve notes. I don`t really know where it comes from but I know when I`m getting into an area that`s a little to reminiscent, so I`ll wait a day and something new will come through me. It depends a lot on what I`ve been listening to. If I listen to classic rock for a year it`s going to be bluesy or if I listen to metal for a year it`s going to be heavier. I just go with it. I don`t try to pre-plan anything.

The way that we imitate each others` riffs is something that other bands don`t do as much. If we`re jamming with a jazz band, or I am jamming with a jazz band, I have to catch myself, the tendency is always to do that.

It`s all acoustic. The electric sounding riffs I played on an acoustic, ... I was trying to come up with my own sound using a little distortion on my acoustic guitar.

For me, August Wilson is the person who made it appear that I had a place in the American theater. For the first time, I felt I actually saw characters that I knew, that spoke my language and had my stories and could express them in the riffs of blues and jazz.