Inspiration

Wgg: Scott, with all your diverse musical influences, what was the last thing you listened to that just "grabbed" and inspired you?

Scott: Recently when I first heard "Release it" by Prince - it's really superfunky - it definitely inspired me to write a Funk tune. I just heard it and went, "Wow, that's really good Funk music." And when I hear a tune that's just really great and I go, "Yeah man, I wanna write something cool like that"...

Sure, I'm influenced.

I try actually not to be so influenced, you know what I mean? Because I want me to come out.

It's hard being a musician - if you listen to something that really knocks you out it's hard not to be influenced by it. And these days it becomes harder and harder to be knocked out by different things because there's so much out there and we've heard so much stuff.

These days, I mean after Weather Report...

I mean that was like the ultimate band to me. There has not been a whole lot of bands post Weather Report that have really blown me away as much as they had the ability to blow me away. And they didn't even have a guitar player.

Wgg: They are kind of your dream band?

Scott: Yeah sure. That band with Jaco, Joe, Wayne and Peter Erskine that's pretty much in my viewpoint the best band that's ever been together. It's hard to top that.

Wgg: Besides music are there other forms of art that inspire you?

Scott: Yeah, I like film, I like movies.

For me it's a matter of time, I just don't have time. As much as I love going to see movies I haven't been in 3 or 4 months since I was home. Because I was so busy just trying to get ready for the tour.

A lot of my time gets also kind of eaten up with searching for better tones - because I'm kind of a gearhead and I'm always investigating.

"You know I heard this is better"...
"I heard that's better"...

And I have a circle of friends where we are always miking stuff and experimenting in our studios. You know like, "Try turning the knob to "8" and see what happens."

It's amazing how much time that takes - but the rewards are great.

Wgg: You have a studio at home?

Scott: Just an overdubbing studio and I'm always in it.

Messing around with gear and playing with sounds. That takes up quite a bit of my time actually, and it's time that I used to spend practicing...

But ever since I got into recording, recording kinda became the most important thing. Not so much what you record but sometimes just the recording process itself.

Wgg: Learning new software...

Scott: Yeah, learning new software, learning how to make sounds that you didn't know how to make before.