1. If you could change your real name, what would
it be?
"You", so that when people forget my name they can just call out "Hey You!", thus avoiding embarrassment.
2. Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Cartman from South Park, because he never learns.
3. What is the best song you've ever had a hand in writing?
My Stark Effect tune "Think of Me," which uses samples of people's CD dedication messages that I downloaded from their computers without their permission (or knowledge).
4. Who is your favorite author?
It's a toss-up between Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins.
5. What do you do often that metalheads would consider to be lame?
Shower. Kidding! I listen to a lot of soft, melodic "singer/songwriter" type music, like Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, which is so nonmetal it's way off the upper right-hand corner of the periodic table.
6. What language would you like to speak fluently and why?
The ancient Cretan language Linear A, because no one knows it, and I'd get lots of free dinners from linguists who want to decipher the Phaistos Disc.
7. Name a treasured piece of clothing.
My "You Don't Want To Know Who My Lawyer Is" T-shirt that some guy gave me outside a movie theater in Rotterdam. I still have no idea what he was trying to promote.
8. Name a piece of trivia that is insignificant to the world but has an influence on your life.
When I was 12, I discovered a numerological link between the works of JRR Tolkien and the number 20. He was born in 1892 (1+8+9+2 = 20), The Hobbit came out in 1937 (1+9+3+7 = 20), and so on, culminating in the poem that begins The Lord of the Rings "Three rings for the elven kings under the sky/ Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone/ Nine for mortal men doomed to die/ One for the dark lord on his dark throne." 3 + 7 + 9 + 1 = 20, and if you reverse the digits, you get 1973, the year he died. I thought this was really significant, but over time I realized that not all patterns are meaningful, and that one can be really excited by one's pet theories and still be wrong or misguided.
9. Name a defunct band you wish were still together.
Babe the Blue Ox; they haven't released anything for seven years, so I assume they're defunct. They made great, complex, inventive rock music, and I miss 'em.
10. What have you learned about yourself, a noted non-metalhead, since you started working with Beatallica.
One thing I've learned is that if you
have a good idea, bravery, and most of all perseverance, you can accomplish
way more than you ever suspected.
Songs by D^2