I've always loved music. I grew up with older brothers and sisters who were into music, played The Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin.
Well, my sister played trumpet. Can you imagine having a sister blowing the trumpet around the house, Fred? And my brother, he played piano. Everybody was playing some kind of music, so it was natural for me to get into it.
My sister Sonu and my brother Tony have taught me a lot. I owe them so much. Whatever I am today is because of my family.
I joined the army on my seventeenth birthday, full of the romance of war after having read a lot of World War I British poetry and having seen a lot of post-World War II films. I thought the romantic presentations of war influenced my joining and my presentation of war to my younger siblings.
I didn't like the idea of acting back in school. Both my brothers were into it.
My major influence was my ten years older sister.
I grew up with classical music blasting in my parents' living room and my older brother's practicing saxophone in his room listening to jazz... a beautiful chaos.
Because I have so many brothers and sisters, I think I'm able to have a certain patience.
I have an older brother and sister, and I'm definitely ahead of my years in terms of sci-fi and films. My brother is a massive sci-fi fan, and the Linda Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver era... I was involved and interested.
I would go into my three different sisters' rooms in the early-mid '70s and they had very specific different tastes in music. I specifically remember lying on my different sisters' bedroom floors and listening to their record collections. And "Starship Trooper" was one of my sister Nancy's favorite songs and favorite album. Music is so defining for me. In the late '70s and early '80s, I worked in radio. When I was in high school, I worked at two different radio stations.
I got into music through just being inspired by my brother and sisters. They all sing, play instruments and write - and they're very good at it.
