What is the first creative moment you remember? When I was
ten, I was playing “Talk of The Town” by Jack Johnson with my uncle in my
basement, and I started playing a really simple solo at the bridge that just
worked.
Was anybody there to witness or observe it? My uncle, he was
playing along, and at the end, he complimented me.
What is the best idea you have ever had? Re-invent public school
teaching.
What made it great in your mind? Instead of being the
children of foreign technology, we would be the fathers and mothers of the
greatest scientific revolution here in the U.S.
What is the dumbest idea? I stopped speaking to my father
about two years ago.
What made it stupid? Everything.
Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea? Every bit,
he made some mistakes that put our family in a huge financial bind, and instead
of owning up to it, he fled the country.
What is your creative ambition? Write a song, both words and
guitar, that doesn’t totally suck.
What are the obstacles to this ambition? I never took any
proper music lessons, so I have no idea about scales or rhythm, when I play it
is just about what sounds nice.
What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition? I want
to learn to play the piano, and by doing that, I would be forced to learn the
proper skills.
How do you begin your day? Shower, shave my head, and eat cereal.
If I don’t, I feel like I haven’t woken up yet.
What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat? Trivia. I
love looking at Wikipedia when I’m bored to learn something cool.
Describe your first successful creative act. One of the
first days of rugby practice in high school, nobody knew anything. I told my
friend Mark to run into one of the defenders and I would drive him forward. I didn’t
know this was called mauling and was legal. We ended up getting in a fistfight
with the defender.
Describe your second successful creative act. The day of high
school prom was also the day of a rugby tournament; I was the only older player
to stay for the last game. Before the ten of us played our game, five men down,
I spoke to my teammates to them to try inspiring them. We won.
Compare them. They aren’t the only, or the first, but at the
moment they seemed appropriate. The first was just a seed of an idea, but the
second was the moment of the day,
anyone there would agree.
What are your attitudes toward: money, power, praise,
rivals, work, play? Money, like condoms is only fun if you use them, keeping them
locked up isn’t an accomplishment. I never liked power, even though I always seek
it for myself. The only payment I ever want to hear is praise, I would work for
neighbors freely if they came out and told me what a great job I did. If not, I
asked them for money. Work and play should be the same thing, if you don’t like
to do it, don’t. Life is too short to be miserable.
Which artists do you admire most? Ray Lamontagne. I listen
to him at least once a day. Every song of his, I say, “Ohh, I love this song.” That
says something.
Why are they your role models? He only speaks from the
heart. It inspires me to connect with every word that he sings.
What do you and your role models have in common? We play
guitar and have beards.
Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you? My mom. She is
better than anyone’s mother is too.
She is the only person in the world who can
make you feel bad for buying expensive organic lettuce whilst at the same time supporting
you and your brother, working three jobs, trying to save your house, and never
saying she is tired once.
Who is your muse? My muse would be my brother, who can tell
a tale taller than the highest mountain.
Define muse? Storyteller.
When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do
you respond? Shut up. There is a reason they got that smart and it wasn’t by
yapping.
When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence,
laziness, or indifference, how do you respond? Seek out the root and try to
inspire them to seek truth. The truth is the most powerful thing in an argument.
When faced with impending success or the threat of failure,
how do you respond? Usually, relax.
When something is out of my control, I have
learned to roll with the punches. Then you can stop and assess you situation
critcally
When do work, do you love the process or the result? I love
the twenty or so minutes after where you feel like superman, you are finally done
and I even seek out other tasks to keep that high.
At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp?
Women. I have an over-inflated view of my own self. It leads me to be shot down
often.
What is your ideal creative activity? I would be playing guitar
on a beach with my brother at the harmonica and somebody freestyle singing.
What is your greatest fear? Being my father. The irony is by
avoiding him, I’m doing the same things he does. My real fear is that there’s
no way out of it.
What is the likelihood either of the answers to the previous
two questions happening? I try to play with others all the time but my brother
is in Hong Kong currently working. I am going to call my father this week.
Which of your answers would you most like to change? I want
my dumbest idea when I’m old to be living a life so rich with people that I don’t
have a camera around often enough.
What is your idea of mastery? People knowing you are great without
having to tell them.
What is your greatest dream?
My greatest dream was one where I had to tell my friend Nick that I was
dating his sister while we were at the underwear-only whiffle ball tournament
at my college. Once I finally told him that I was dating his sister, he,
despite my fears, wasn’t mad, he paused, then said, “Yeahhh, its cool, she is pretty hot.” Then I woke up. My greatest
dream was first to be on a rugby all-star team, then on that team it evolved to
running out of a tunnel out onto the field like a star. At that game, it began
to rain, so the two teams lined up in the stadium’s tunnel to stay dry. When we
ran out everybody cheered for us. Now it has become to be interviewed in the
back of Men’s Journal Magazine. I have been successful each other time, so I am
confident for this one too.
