"Anywhere in particular you’re looking forward to touring to?"
Not specifically, I toured a whole bunch on this record [the Clarence Greenwood Recordings], like, sixteen months. But I love playing New York, Seattle, Philly was cool, and there were some places that I was surprised at. Ashville, North Carolina and places like Austin, Texas were really good."

"The Clarence Greenwood Recordings deals with a lot of pretty heavy and controversial issues. Why do you think this is an important message to send out?"
I think that when you’re an artist, whether you’re a musician or a painter or a dancer, whatever, it’s important to show the different aspects of human life. Not just the problems but also about love and all these other things, and it affects me so automatically I’ll think to write about it. I don’t consciously go out to write a political song or anything, and it may not affect or appeal to everyone, but it’s what inspires me.

"Do you think it’s appreciated?"
I didn’t get in to this for the fame, and I don’t really know why anyone would. I mean, it’s beautiful to be recognized for your art if they love it, if they really appreciate it. Like, someone coming up to me and saying I really loved this song, or, I got married to this one, or, this one really helped me through a rough time. That’s dope man, that’s what it’s about. People coming up to you like, I saw you on MTV! What does that mean?! It doesn’t mean anything!

"How do you view a lot of the bands that are on the scene at the moment and a lot of the music that’s around right now. Is there anyone you admire in particular?"
There are a lot of good records out there, but it’s unfortunate that all you hear on the radio is corny. Nobody’s really saying anything! Y’know, so everyone thinks music is corny now. But that’s not the case, there’s a lot of hot music. Di Angelo makes great records, Jeff Buckley made great records. I also really like Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and all The Beatles stuff, Marvin Gaye. These people sold records as well and there’s nothing wrong with that, but now the pop charts are really cheesy! They’re really corny! But there’s a lot of trouble in the world and there aren’t a lot of artists saying anything about that. I think that a lot of people are scared to play that sort of stuff, and then there’s the whole patriotic aspect of it. If you’re not down with the cause you’re not patriotic and it becomes an issue, it seems stupid to me. But then you get artists saying stuff like that and it’s only to sell records, it doesn’t mean anything. They’re selling themselves short.

"You can always find the people though who are making records for the love of it instead of just to sell. What was it like working with people like Carlos Santana and Me’shell Ndegeocello on this album?"
It’s great because when you’re able to make a record and have people who you admire and respect play on it, it’s a great feeling. They contribute something to the music as well and I’m really lucky that I’ve been able to work with a lot of really good people. They’re very talented and you find you can connect with a lot of really special people through music, that’s why I love it.

"How does it feel to get back to the performance side of things after you’ve been recording for so long?"
I’m not adjusted to it yet! [Laughs] It’s funny, I’m just fiddling through it. I like both big and small venues though. Sometimes it’s great with the magnitude of performing somewhere big, but sometimes it feels really good doing a small, more intimate show.

"What can we expect from the new record then?"
I just hope it’ll be an evolution of this one, musically and artistically. Every record though is so different, you end up with a different kind of love for each record and songs that you like stick in your head. At the end of the day, all that matters is if you’re cool with it. If you’ve done your best and you like it, then it doesn’t even matter if it flops, because you can look back on it and think yeah, that was a dope record. That’s all you can do, you can’t control anything else. In life there’s all these different things that can come at you, but that’s one thing that you can have and you can control.