Q: How do you know how to change a song after you have a first draft?

A: Usually I can tell if it's a good song, I just get the feeling, and almost always my feelings are resonated back to me by my compadres. A lot of the times my favorite songs are my friend's favorites, etc. A lot of the time I take suggestions from people. Why not if it's gonna make the song better? I don't like to dwell too much on revision, songs change with time - occasionally I might find that "something" a song's been missing months after I've "completed" it. But as a teacher/friend tells me, and I'm paraphrasing, but a piece--- be it a song, or a poem, or a story, whatever-- is always under revision, can always be made better - you don't FINISH things, else they just die.

Q: What do you find most difficult about songwriting? Most enjoyable?

A: The only difficult thing about songwriting is right before the song comes, because you can't always be sure it WILL come, and that's what the incredibly hard, painful part is for me. Most enjoyable to be able to sing something that I really mean, and that I know only in song form. Anyway, songwriting can be sort of a sweet, surprising miracle. That is, when it isn't driving you %x!# insane.

Q: Where can young musicians go to play live in your town? Where do you find audiences?

A: Coffee shops, punk rock basements. But to tell you the truth, there aren't so many bands anymore (I haven't really developed a theory, so I couldn't say why), so you gotta go find your own way I suppose, but I haven't paid much attention to "making it" here in HP...all I'm thinking about is leaving, to tell you the truth.