What was the first inkling you had to pick up an instrument?

I would think of ideas that weren't samples, but simply melodies in my head and I wanted to be able to do them without calling certain cats in. Plus playing is fun as a motherfucker, it's just immediate gratification.

In the middle of the process of teaching yourself to play was the idea for the Cherrywine group in the back of your mind or did that emerge from just getting better and playing with other heads?

Its like say you like a girl and then one day you might notice her and the next day you want to talk to her, but it still might take you a month or so to get to it. It's an ongoing process of reactions to the world outside of you. It was just a series of natural, coincidental, and intentional things that led to it. I was always doing music so I don't really remember the day or the instance. After

the Red Ant thing went under I just started learning to play. I moved back to Seattle and started dealing with a couple homies that played, seen a few of them perform, and got excited off that and started pursuing it really hard.

You have said your sound is going to be "futuristic." Give me an example of how you are going to manipulate the instruments you plan on using to create that sound.

When I think of the future I think of something that you know is ahead, but you can't tell what's going to happen in those instances of time that are going to come. So you give in to the fact that you don't know what the future is, but your preparing for it to be able to react to something. It's not necessarily in the sound. When I say futuristic I don't mean space age or weird I mean it's sort of unexpected, but you know it's going to come if you live long enough to see it. I want the music to sound like

anticipation with certainty, but still something unexpected.

You played a schizophrenic in the short film, "I am Ali," give me a synopsis of what the story is about.

A nigga's with his girl, he's a cool cat who's kind of funny and acts like Muhammad Ali. His girl is like that's my man he got this whole Muhammad Ali thing, I don't know why he thinks he going to be a boxer, but that's my boo I love him. But by the end of the film she's like my man is fucking crazy. Its kinda funny, but at the same time its like damn. It takes place over the period of time where she goes from thinking the shit is cool and funny to I don't know how I'm going to deal with this he needs help.

Did you set any goals for yourself before accepting the role?

The director, Dream Hampton, gave me a book by this French director

named Robert Busan and it was quotes of his about his approach to art. I read that a lot. The lady in the flick who starred opposite of me, Aunjanue Ellis, has been in a lot of flicks like "Caveman's Valentine" and "Men of Honor," with Robert Deniro and Cuba Gooding Jr. Just being with her and Dream, I knew that I had to come and be prepared. I worked at it just so I could get to the set and be able to relax, so that I can do things naturally and spontaneously so it would seem like a real perform-ance. It's doing real good, it made it into the Sundance Film Festival and she is getting a chance to make another film because of it, so it's working out well.