It's really about equal and fair access to tool use.

What we have with this band is a family thing where we all really respect each other's playing.

People say we're a jazz group. But there's no way I would ever call myself a jazz drummer. The only thing that's jazz about us is keeping the need to move forward and evolve.

Man, he's just one of our idols. I've been listening to Scofield since I was a teenager. One thing I always respected about him was you never knew what his next album would be like. Even today, he still pushes the envelope. For someone to take that kind of approach with his music and then show interest in playing with us is really inspiring.

It's cool that we've been able to keep our music fresh and keep people interested. Obviously, there are going to be people who are like, 'Oh man, I dig the old stuff more.' But, we have to do what we have to do.

We're all - especially myself - influenced by old-school music, but we all listen to some new-school stuff as well. Those influences of ours, we just soak them up, and they just come out in our writing and our performances.