I mostly listen to things that are so different because there's something so intriguing about trying to understand where someone is coming from.
There are not many musicians from India who are working internationally in pop. My aim is to change that and show the world that we have so much more to offer.
The thing I find frustrating about rock music is, how different can you make an acoustic drum kit sound, an electric guitar and vocals?
For better or worse, I'm interested in just about everything: every different type of music I can imagine. I can never see a reason to choose just one type of music at the exclusion of everything else. Different types of music are capable of being rewarding in different kinds of ways.
People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play.
If anyone has listened to my stuff over the years, they know I tend not to do the same thing twice.
From folk to tribal to Cab Calloway, Cole Porter, Gershwin to the Rolling Stones, whose first record was all covers, to country-western, bebop, blues, and even the referencing in classic hip hop to cliched love ballads of the '80s or whatever - that is kinda gone, and that's just terrifying to me.
I love the idea of a record containing an entire universe; where the sounds span decades of recording from all over the world and all sorts of different sources.
I became a professional musician and played all kinds of music. I played bluegrass, I played classical music, and for many years, I played jazz.
Only after coming to Chennai did I come to know that I know nothing about music. People in Chennai are so talented in Carnatic, ghazals, etc. They can play Piano, etc so well.
I think a lot of the intention of bands, especially in the last year, is to spread themselves out geographically and borrow from different cultures and different sounds, and to be eclectic. And that's great in terms of dynamics, but it also tends to not have that torpedo and fire running through it. If you're spreading yourself out across the globe, you're also not emphasizing a singular point, which I think great rock music has always done.
The main thing for all of us was having a ballad, a slower song. Finally, they get to hear more of a vulnerable side to us! We didn't really have that in 'Reflection,' and that's something we all fought for.
Prince, Bootsy Collins, Earth Wind & Fire and Parliament all had albums that sound different. I wanted to show, as a hip-hop producer, I'm one of those that can do anything, because I was raised on so much music aside from rap and hip-hop.
I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies.
I never thought 'Stairway to Heaven' was a long song. I loved how there was this part and then there was another part that was completely different.
I just know that I'm a fan of all different kinds of genres. You're supposed to be free doing music, and that's how I feel.
I'm not really allowed to talk about the Dead though. I think when we are at our best, we definitely do things that the Dead or no other band could do. We explore things and take things to the extreme.
I feel like 'Work' was a really good song for people to get to know me, as it's obviously biographical. With 'Bounce,' I wanted to make sure people know there's a fun side to me as well as the somber and serious one.
I have a soft spot for 'Wind of Change' because it was my first one, and it was a departure from Humble Pie - very much so. It showed me the spectrum of what I could do.
Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it's all African-American music.
Musically, I'm always gonna take it a little farther, and Lord willing, people are gonna get that and understand that: that there's not really one genre I'm trying to be in, but just as a producer, as a writer, as an artist, that I'm planning on going farther.
Music is life itself. What would this world be without good music? No matter what kind it is.
Of course, Paul McCartney's sound is different from mine, but it's the way you hear things, really.
Portugal. The Man, to me, doesn't have any real ties. We try to change things up with every album, really progress, and let things happen.
I don't want people to think like Roddy is John Legend now. I just felt like once I got to a certain point, that I wanted to expand musically.
