I wanted so badly to be in a famous band, and it was not happening. I played drums with different bands and with the Blue Man Group in Chicago, but I definitely felt like, 'Wow, I did not picture my life being like this.'

Surround yourself with people you like and respect; surround yourself with people you just want to be around and keep making things.

Fereydun, that's my dad's name. My grandmother, my dad's mom, when she was pregnant, she was dating a man from Persia, a Persian gentleman. It wasn't his child, but he was still very supportive and said, 'Hey, this is a great name,' and so it stuck. So that's what she named him.

I travel a lot. I'll go back and forth, you know, West Coast-East Coast, but it's separated by segments. So it's not a daily thing.

My mom is from Venezuela, and my dad is German and Japanese, and we lived in Brazil when I was a kid for a couple of years, and then I grew up on Long Island. I think all the traveling and all the nationalities put that stuff in my head. I was just around it a lot.

Every day, I wanna work on being a better person, not just to others but to myself.

I'm so glad cities have personalities, just like people have personalities. That's something that makes me smile.