What is your first musical memory?
I vividly remember my older siblings singing along to Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke� as we rode in my parents’ car.
What was the first album you owned?
Hmm… it was either Kiss’ Destroyer or something by Blue Oyster Cult.
Were you not a musician, what would your profession be?
I’d like to say International Red Cross or something similarly noble, but the truth is I’d probably have been a politician.
What song do you wish you had written, and why?
Pardon my predictability, but it’s “God Only Knows.� It’s the best ballad Brian Wilson or anyone else ever wrote; beautiful and touching without being schmaltzy or saccharine.
What was the first concert you attended?
The Police and REM in ’83 or ’84. I thought I was having an out-of-body experience.
Who would be in your ultimate three-band, live performance lineup, dead or alive?
The Who (with Moon, natch), Jellyfish and ‘80’s era King Crimson.
What instrument would you like to play, that you currently cannot?
Definitely drums. I’m very rhythm oriented.
With whom would you like to collaborate?
Ben Gibbard (Death Cab) as a lyricist or Steven Drozd (Flaming Lips) as an arranger/drummer.
Which one of your songs would you put in a time capsule?
Well, there’s an as-yet-untitled track coming up on the next album that I think is the most “mature� and “complete� thing I’ve written so far.
What album can you not live without?\
The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips.
Who was your first pop star romantic crush/fantasy?
Heart. I had a poster of the Wilson sisters over my bed. ‘Nuff said ‘bout that.
BTW, you guys left out my favorite of the original 15 questions, so I’m just unilaterally including it:
Name three records that changed your life.
The Who’s Quadrophenia, Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps and Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand (a shared love of which was probably the main reason Splitsville got together).
