I think where you play is important.

I have a lot of experience in playing all sorts of venues. And one of my interests is to understand what constitutes the vibe of a place and what makes one concert different from another. You can't fully measure or calculate these things, yet they are absolutely evident once you're on stage.

Going to the Sahara Desert and meeting the Touareg band Tinariwen was a life-changing experience. All through that time, I have just carried on learning and meeting musicians, and I keep finding links between different forms.

I love communicating with people, and sometimes language is not enough. I think that's what poetry is, where you can mess with language and get through to things that can't be described or communicated through regular language or scientific processes.

In a lot of African instruments, you find a rattle, and sound engineers have a hard time making sense of it.

Sometimes language is not enough.

One of my interests is to understand what constitutes the vibe of a place and what makes one concert different from another.

On a very technical level, I am a geek who is interested in the intricacy of rhythm playing, so I like comparing and working out its details.

I think entertainment is a perfectly noble occupation.

I am not scared of making mistakes.

I have much clearer memories of my time in Egypt: songs on the radio, the rhythms that accompanied belly dancers, the sound of the adhan - the Muslim call to prayer. I just soaked it all up.