Interview

SS: When you're focusing on the part of their music that you like, do you ever give them any sense of why you don't like the other part?

DM: [laughs] Sometimes I do pontificate and let them know. I try to use other songs or bands as reference points-it seems like the easiest way to get across what are really differences of taste or opinion. If you know what kind of music somebody loves, then you can kind of figure out why they do what they do.

SS: I want to form a political party that's based entirely on what music people listen to. To me, it's a much better barometer of what they think and feel than their political stance.

DM: I've had nightmares about having to kick people out of my band because they've said that they don't like the Beatles. I'd wake up and turn to them and say, "You like the Beatles, right?"

SS: I come from a generation that was surrounded by popular music, but I don't know if anybody's ever going to move the ball forward as far and as fast as the Beatles did.

DM: What affected me the most about the Beatles was that they were the biggest band in the world and they could have done anything they wanted-

SS: And they chose to keep pushing themselves.

DM: It was their choice to do that. Those kinds of choices have meaning because the more options you have, the harder it is to make them. You see why a lot of people don't stick around very long.

SS: Why do you think that's the case in music especially? Is it just the metabolism of the industry?

DM: I think that it's fear. The musicians themselves don't seem to know enough about why they're in the positions they're in, so they're afraid to lose those positions. If you're 22 years old and you can't believe you're even in the position to have a career making music, the first thing you're going to think is: Maintain. Don't lose it. And that's precisely what causes you to lose everything.

SS: The traditional models for success are just also disappearing.

DM: Well, in the history of humans making music, how long have musicians actually been rich and famous? In the end, I think musicians know that getting up in the morning and making music you love doesn't necessarily mean that you deserve billions of dollars or worship from anybody.