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BiTS: That's absolutely wonderful. When did you decide that you wanted to be a
musician? I mean, a professional musician.
MD: After I saw Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock [chuckles]. I was in third grade and I'm
also an artist. I draw cartoons, and I used to make little comic book strips of me and
my band, doing little concerts and stuff. I was playing guitar with my teeth and behind
my back and the bass player, like I said, was left-handed, so I had them in there
left-handed and I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to be a pro. I want to play
in England. I want to play all over the world. I want to meet all the lovely ladies, and
I just want to spread the joy of music. That's always been my dream, and I'm still
trying to fulfil my dream.
BiTS: [Laughs] That’s absolutely
wonderful. I've been looking at your
website and reading a lot of it with
interest. I noticed that you seem to have
a band or a number of bands, maybe, that
will play practically any kind of music. Is
that right?
MD: Yes. If they're paying, I'm playing,
that's my motto. I have like five different
bands, and I just do this so I can just keep
working, because I haven’t had a day job
since I was 16 years old. I've just been
playing music.
BiTS: I was going to ask you that
question. Have you ever had a professional job, I mean, a proper job?
MD: I worked at the Guitar Centre for two days when I was like 18, and they said I
smelled like marijuana, so they had to let me go. I worked at the post office for a day
and a half, and the second day I was just standing there, putting all the mail in zip
codes, in the slots. So I'm standing there doing this and my back started hurting. So
I'm like, sitting on the table, but I'm still doing my job. They’re like, you can't sit down.
You have to stand up. I was like, oh, this is not going to work out, so it didn't work
out.
BiTS: [Laughing] That’s absolutely wonderful. I love it. Tell me something about
records. “Empty Chair” is one of the string of records that you’ve made. Is that right?
MD: Yes.
BiTS: What other stuff have you done?
MD: Okay, well, like I said, I started recording on cassettes, and just kept recording,
recording. Then maybe it was about 500 recordings later, it started sounding good.