I think music can define our lives. It's interesting when we meet our heroes; sometimes they really let us down, and sometimes we realize that they're just other human beings like us, with the same drama and fears and everything else going into their lives. I've worked with lots of people at different stages of their careers - going up, going down. Some people I've worked with I would never want to work with again, and some people would probably say they never want to work with me again. But all in all, it was definitely cool.
I think we all go through times in our lives when we decide, "I'm going to try something else." I tried filmmaking instead of painting, and I think I enjoyed it more. So I don't paint anymore.
I like posing with a guitar better than I can play the guitar, so I think I found the right field. But I've spent enough time with rock stars to tell you that the best thing in life to be is a rock star.
When you actually get successful, if you became a recognized director, people would let you come up with an idea for a video and they would let you do it.
If I was a young director starting off, there's so many tools at your disposal now to do things relatively inexpensively that it's a great time to learn your chops and do some cool music videos. If I started all over again, I'd still be doing music videos, I'd just be doing them very differently. It's very difficult for me to do them now, but for young kids out there that love music and want to tackle a different art form - and I do think music video is an art form - that's a very cool thing to do.
There are things that you could do with film that you could never do with HD. There's a warmth and an organic quality - almost a handmade quality - that goes into film. Film will always have a bit more of a humanistic feeling to it.
Music videos are so incredibly relevant, but I don't think they're relevant on broadcast television anymore. I think they're much more about the power of the Internet. The stakes in advertising is a very different game. There's a lot of money involved and a lot of pressure. I miss the freedom and the rock-'n'-roll spirit of doing music videos
