[singing]

It is a miracle when anybody wants to listen to anything you have to say [laughs] creatively.

It's like a real, it's a real milestone, because there's so much in the world going on, that somebody would even take the time to stop and listen to anything you have to say and treat it with any value is a incredible thing to be a part of.

I attribute a lot of it to this talented young man right here.

[singing]

We're working on a record now that will be out before the end of the year.

The level of perfection that me and Angelo sort of strive for, even with the realization that there's no such thing as perfection, it's still a process.

And takes time to be creative, takes time to do something when you're trying to do something at a certain level.

Oh, okay.

Like, Silversun Pickups picked In the Air, and Jesse Michaels and Tim Armstrong picked Simon Says, and so on and so forth.

And, you know, when we had done a tour last year with Less Than Jake and we met Cat Bite, it was just such a cool hang.

And when they heard we were making that record, they were like, "Oh, I want to do Wish I Had a Dave." And it just kinda all just, you know, sort of came together.

[singing]

It is a miracle when anybody wants to listen to anything you have to say [laughs] creatively.

It's like a real...

It's a real milestone, because there's so much in the world going on, that somebody would even take the time to stop and listen to anything you have to say and treat it with any value is a incredible thing to be a part of.

... and go to the valley

... and go to the valley.

Um, myself and Kendall, the original guitar player, were two blocks from each other, so we would catch the same bus to the valley.

And, you know, a bunch of rambunctious kids from that neighborhood, and we were nerdy, seventh grade, you know, you're growing, so you got the pants that are, like, too short and they're pulled up.

And Kendall wore glasses, and he's blind in one eye and, you know, it was just like...

And so these kids were relentlessly dumping on him.

And, um, I remember it because we had discovered Devo.

[laughs]

Tell me why you say that.

You know, I think we felt sort of like lucky that we had a record deal.

That's such an accomplishment on its own.

You know what I mean? Especially being signed to Columbia records at the time.

It was, you know, we were label based with Miles Davis and Bob Dylan.

It's just like, okay, that's the company I'm keeping.

Okay, cool.

Oh, uh-huh.

You know what I mean? Sorry, Michael or Jermaine.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, sing like Michael, play guitar like Tito.

There you go.

He would just...

he left breadcrumbs, my uncle, and he would just play stuff that I liked, and then he'd throw in Miles Davis, and he'd play stuff that I liked, and then he'd throw in Stevie, and he'd play stuff that I like, and that's kind of how it all sort of came to pass.

So by the time Angelo and I met each other in junior high school, I'd been playing piano, but it was really all by ear.

I