First I was a European-style player, then I was a downtown 'noise guy,' and now some people call me an Americana guy.
I've been lucky with the circle of people I'm playing with. We've played enough that there's a language we talk with each other when we play.
I hate labels; the problem is that if you say you're one thing, it's hard for people to imagine you as something else. Music is way more complicated than that.
For me the music community was always like a model for what could be. The way people would play together, just harmony and being - old guys and young guys, black guys and white guys. It was setting an example for what the rest of us could be.
"Music, for me, has always been a place where anything is possible--a refuge, a magical world where anyone can go, where all kinds of people can come together, and anything can happen. We are limited only by our imaginations.