Education is a continual process, it's like a bicycle... If you don't pedal you don't go forward.
I decided to take my foot off the pedal with all the detail. I'm sure after 'Animalia' and 'The Eleventh Hour,' readers thought that's what to expect from Graeme Base. With 'The Sign of the Seahorse,' I took a step away from the puzzle-book genre - that was more of an adventure story.
I like mixing things up. That makes it more interesting. I love mixing in slower funk with what I do. I'll add drum and bass and put my foot to the gas pedal and press it to the floor.
You have to maintain the balance between fast growth and smooth growth. It's like driving a car and knowing when to balance the gas pedal and the brake.
Miles Davis would have this lineup of all these amazing musicians and one day would just say, 'We're done.' After tons of great records and tickets sold, he said, 'Now I'm going to grow my hair out and play my horn through a wah-wah pedal.' Rather than play it safe, he went on.
I was very lucky growing up, and I got all my dad's and aunts' toys from the 1950s and 1960s and loved those old pedal cars.
I do a very poor man's pedal steel on the Stratocaster.
You're pulling 4-5G for a lot of the corners around the lap. We build up lactic acid because there are a lot of vibrations in the car, and you have to have strong legs to hit the brake pedal. We need to be fit to do every lap at 100%.
In my touring rig, there's a pedal drawer, where I'm able to switch pedals in and out, going into the front of the amp.
Early on in my career, I was really into the volume pedal techniques that somebody like Steve Howe or Alex Lifeson would use.
