First of all, I'd like to say here the fact that I'm not naturally a craftsman has made me work very hard.
I have a big brother who would make dolls' houses and playhouses and furniture out of wood. He was the one who taught me from such a young age that you could just make something. The physical act of gluing something together was really formative for me.
Homemade sweaters are always itchy.
I always thought that if record companies didn't understand me, fine - I'd go and do it by myself.
I am always happy up a ladder with a paintbrush in my hand. And I wish I had more time to spend in the garden - not least because I get good ideas for writing when I'm out there.
You can make a very heavy and kind of dangerous 3-way shot glass out of a bowling ball.
I'm pretty handy! I do a lot of things around the house, and I actually enjoy it.
Pretty much all of my inventions come about the same way. I have an everyday problem or something that I'm too lazy to do, so I make a machine that does it for me.
I like working with my hands, need to do that more often.
I have an aversion to taking care of my gear, a wayward manifestation of my punk ethos.
When I was fifteen, I used to run around reading 'Adbusters' and dumpster diving, trying to find ways to make the U.S. government unwind into chaos through hardcore punk and metal.
The street finds its own uses for things.
I just like building stuff.
Don't ask me to put up a shelf, but I love engineering.
I do things like hem a pair of pants, I do my own tailoring but I wouldn't attempt a jacket.
There's a great deal of poetry in working out how things work, cutting bits of metal, trying to mend stuff.
I don't want Jeremy Clarkson anywhere near my shed or my toolbox or my piano. He's interested in fashionable restaurants and celebrity gossip - I'm not interested in those.
Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster's terms, 'nirvana' means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that's pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.
I learned to not be afraid to fix things that break.
I build a lot of stuff, but I'm not a 'construction guy.' But I'm one of these guys that sits with his hands on his hips and tells you I'm gonna fix everything.
In Scotland, I have a huge barn full of woodworking tools. I love working with my hands. I basically just make myself bleed a lot. I'm very accident-prone.
I've been an amature inventor for a long time.
It's me who fixes the roof, unblocks the drain, and changes the plug. I'm Spartacus.
I started by hacking around the back yard in Richmond.
It's always interesting when you're doing things yourself - getting the lighting, getting everybody together. It's exciting.
