When Hillel died, it was during one of the happiest times of my life. I was married and completely in love and had a baby on the way.

I'm always put in the unfortunate position of asking people to donate money and people I know in bands to play benefit concerts and all this stuff.

I played trumpet in the school bands. I learned things I liked to play on my trumpet, but I didn't learn why this note goes with this note and why it produces that sound. Or how to create tension in the composition.

The Silverlake Conservatory is a nonprofit music school in Los Angeles where we teach music, mostly to kids, but to people of all ages - people who are old, people with beards, all kinds of people.

Running opened up something beautiful in my life. I try to send the energy all over my body. I love the feeling of it.

I like the idea of acting. Of all these things I've done, sometimes I think I've done well, and sometimes I think I didn't do well, but they are more cameos, and I come in and be crazy.

I love my life and my mistakes and my triumphs - all of it.

Outside of a couple of times I ran without eating right or being too tired, I always feel great after I run.

Before every show, we get into a circle, hold hands, and someone makes a speech. Most bands are too cool for that.

I wanted to play in a band, and I wanted to do music for a living, and that's what I dedicated my life to.

It's fun to just get out there and have a nice conversation when I'm running. To be honest, when I do longer runs, the trail that I like to run up in Malibu has mountain lions, so I always feel I want to run with someone else.

I love entertaining people, I love playing music, and I love rocking like an animal. But at a certain point, you're playing gig after gig after gig, in town after town after town, and you're lying down, staring at another hotel-room ceiling, and it's like, 'I want to be home. I'm a dad. I've got kids.'

I had a friend who had been teaching music for a long time, and he knew a bunch of teachers, so I just put up the money and started a school.

You teach your kids about your beliefs and tell them what you think is right and the conclusions that you've come to from living in the world, and then they can make their own decisions.

A big part of my life is music education because it changed my life - but arts, academics and athletics should all be equally treated in the school.

The quality of instruction is very high at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. It's not about being a rock star. It's about the fundamentals of music, theory and technique on a particular instrument, and playing in an ensemble or private setting.

When I was growing up, in L.A., I went to these schools, Fairfax High School, Bancroft Junior High School, and they had great music departments. I always played in the orchestra, the jazz band, the marching band.

Music gave me something that was not only good for me - it gave me something to work on, something to be proud of and something that I really loved and have a love for - but also music was good for other people because you put joy into the world.

About 13-14 years ago, I went back to my alma mater, Fairfax High School, and ran into the music teacher. She invited me to come speak to the kids about the viability of a music career. When I went into the room where I used to play every day in a big orchestra, they had nothing!

I feel creatively vibrant. I have some great friends; I feel like I'm capable of giving a lot to the world. And ultimately, that's what I really care about, is just giving.

I started playing trumpet when I was 11 years old. All I wanted to be was a jazz trumpet player when I grew up.

I studied chord theory and started playing the piano.

I love literature deeply. I view books as sacred things, and in writing my story, I'm going to do my best to honor the form that has played such a huge part in shaping who I am.

I've always kind of been an in-the-moment kind of person. I don't think that far in advance or have any idea what's around the next corner.

We always write way more than we put on a record. We always write a lot-lot.

Just so people know, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music is not at all about celebrity or fame or being a star. It's an academic music school.

I studied music at the most remedial level when I was a kid, through the Los Angeles public schools, with a little private instruction.

When I'm at home, I just run all the time, you know; I get up, and I go pretty much four days a week outdoors. I go in the canyons around L.A., Malibu - just around L.A. there's a lot of different spots.

We were these arty punks from Hollywood. I considered myself an intellectual.

All I knew about Ethiopia was from a few records that I like, as well as what I read about the famine. But you get there and it's another world. It's filled with art and music and poetry and intellectuals and writers - all kinds of people.

The most important thing to me with any politician is that they don't start wars, but education is a big part of that, too, because educated people are less likely to do stupid, violent things.

For me it's the high-water mark of American culture - not so much contemporary jazz, which has become kind of academic, but the jazz from the '20s on through the '70s.

I grew up being terrified of my parents, particularly my father figures.

Bands develop their own weird ways of doing things.

When I was in school, you could pick any instrument you want, and they'd teach you how to play it. That changed my life. I loved playing music in school, and it sent me on my path as a musician.

I feel like if we're not running, we're basically disrespecting our bodies. When you're running, you're really using your body for what it's meant to do.

My father was out of my life when I was pretty young - when I was 7 years old, he was gone. I didn't see him for the rest of my childhood.

I always thought I was a pretty terrible actor.

I'm a performer and have managed to get my performing into the mainstream consciousness of the world, I guess.

I worked full time jobs, basically doing manual labor until I could make enough money supporting myself as a musician.

The last thing that should happen is funding cut for education; it should be increased. We need to put more money towards education, and anything else is abusive.

We were at the dark end of the L.A. punk scene, and that scene was full-on and violent and aggressive and wild and intense.

I got my love of jazz from my stepfather, who was a jazz musician.

I was raised to think that rock was music for ignorant people who didn't think for themselves.

When something comes up, and it's interesting, and I have the time, I'll do it.

With acting, I always feel conscious of what I'm doing.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

I exercise; I have a big career. I'm a parent, and I run a music school.

I just lucked into this weird, little obscure cameoesque film career. I just love being a part of film history.

All my career, all that I've really done has been based on emotion and intuition and gravitating toward what sounds good.