Fereydun, that's my dad's name. My grandmother, my dad's mom, when she was pregnant, she was dating a man from Persia, a Persian gentleman. It wasn't his child, but he was still very supportive and said, 'Hey, this is a great name,' and so it stuck. So that's what she named him.
All of my memories are now on hard drives. I'll change phones or I'll change my laptop, and all my photos stay.
My mom is from Venezuela, and my dad is German and Japanese, and we lived in Brazil when I was a kid for a couple of years, and then I grew up on Long Island. I think all the traveling and all the nationalities put that stuff in my head. I was just around it a lot.
Every day, I wanna work on being a better person, not just to others but to myself.
Talking Heads were a big influence on my comedy. For David Byrne, every album had to be different. With 'Portlandia,' every season has to be different. You gotta reinvent the look, all of it.
As a kid, 'The Monkees' was such a cool show. I had such a thrill saying, 'OMG, I was in a sketch with one of the Monkees.'
My favorite album is 'Ram' by Paul and Linda McCartney.
I can't relax. I'm not happy unless I'm working on stuff. 'SNL' is always a huge workload, as enjoyable as it is.
Over the years, El Perro del Mar became this artist that, every record that came out, I just loved it.
When I used to see Rick Moranis do something, to me that was immediately funny. Or George Carlin or Martin Lawrence.
Surround yourself with people you like and respect; surround yourself with people you just want to be around and keep making things.
I've met Tony Danza. He was really nice. And he looks... I feel like he hasn't aged. He looks exactly the same. He's just Tony Danza. He's exactly the same as he's always been.
I love my bandmates, and they're my friends, and even though we had fun and got to tour and I got to play the drums a lot, which I'll always appreciate, we had a really rough time. We toured and tried to get people to come to our shows and put out records, and we really struggled.
The day of parts of the country hating each other, or rivalries like that... I feel like that's dead.
That's one of the great things about Los Angeles, that people just play music, and it's all very welcoming and welcomed.
I loooved Sleater-Kinney like a crazy person.
There are bands that I am friends with, who will invite me up on stage. Like Les Savy Fav, who have had me on stage, and I have played on their record. There are a couple of bands like that. Yo La Tengo has invited me to play with them.
I feel bad for everyone I've gone out with.
I have an inability to relax. I try to make every day a work day. I get pleasure from work... I try to think of sketch ideas, stand-up pieces. I am incapable of leisure and leisure time.
When punk came along, it made perfect sense to me. I found it melodic. The Clash, Buzzcocks.
