I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players.

I think we're right up there with Herman's Hermits and the other greats. Maybe somewhere between Herman's Hermits and the Gershwins.

It seemed like the more complex the music we were playing, the less able we were to guarantee its consistency.

We have been fortunate enough to do something that has always been out of the mainstream and yet have an audience for what we do.

Originally, we had a band known as Steely Dan. As we moved away from the band, we got whoever was appropriate for specific tunes. In a lot of cases, we gravitated toward jazz players who had more sophisticated harmonic concepts.

My primary influences were the best jazz players from the 50's and 60's and later some of the pop people from the same time period along with the better of the well known blues musicians.