When I write a tune - and it's been like this for many years - I always hear in the back of my head some sort of vague, orchestrated, fully fleshed-out big-band version of the song with other parts going on.
Generally, when a record label suggests album ideas for you, you smile politely, and then proceed to shoot it down, because it's never what you as an artist feel is right for you.
In the States, this type of jam-band phenomena has opened it up for groups to improvise, admittedly more in the groove area, as opposed to the straight-ahead jazz thing - which is good for me, as that's one part of where I'm at. It's been so great playing these gigs and seeing kids come out and the whole college scene.
It turns out kids today still learn that four-chord progression when they're just picking up the guitar.
I have to work at tunes to get them to come out. Sometimes I'll sit there for four or five hours and get absolutely nothing.
It's one thing to sit at home and write a piece with your guitar, and quite another to have it performed by four people. For me, it's always trial and error.
The Meters are, I think, the most influential group in our time to come out of New Orleans, to have changed and introduced us all to a way of playing, and to a groove and a level of feel in playing funk-jazz.
I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.
Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?
I like forms that are flexible, that can let you feel creative.
It's really good to be forced to get away and try something else, find something that's exciting.
I guess I got lucky with my sound.
The jazz clubs wind up having only rich tourists - the kids can't come. If they do, then they spend their entire monthly allotments on a 45-minute set.
