Quote

I thought that I would like to be affiliated with some school or institution. As time went on, I also decided on the subject that I wanted to get involved with in addition to music: it was Black Studies.

My music is a direct reflection of the eclectic person I am. I don't like to be stuck in an R&B box.

In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.

I wanted to be in a band that shared ideas and were in it together.

After school I moved to London to get involved in music. I took the whole thing very seriously.

It was a big surprise when I started to get attention in Sweden, going from biochemistry studies to touring and living from music only. There were a couple of years while I went to university when I was OK with thinking of music as just a nice recreation.

At 18, I moved to L.A. with my heavy metal band Avant Garde, which was very much influenced by Metallica. At 19, I got a job at Tower Records, and everything started to change very quickly. I started listening to the Velvet Underground, Pixies, early Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and also earlier music like the Beatles.

I went to school and studied music for a year at USC, which unlocked a bunch of doors for me in terms of my relationship to music.

I wanted to bring the R&B flavor and other Westernized sounds to my music, because that's the type of music I grew up listening to.

I wanted to explore the connections between different kinds of music.