The man who tamed the harmonica

After the performance on Oct 27 at Post Mountain Club in Beijing, they bowed to the cheering crowds. [Photo by Ruan Fan/chinadaily.com.cn]

What's a book that you read recently?

The book I'm reading now is a French book about adventure, translating to English it would be, In the Forest of Siberia. It's a story about a man who went to live alone in a shack in Siberia. It is a journal that he's keeping every day about his life alone in this amazing place. It's a human experience about being alone for six months, without anything you previously had. It reads really well, and it's an experience that I'm not capable of doing right now. It's fascinating that somebody can do that. I don't love novels anymore, because you have to follow a guy for 500 pages and listen to his little stories that he wants to tell you. I like essays, and autobiography, short novels, poems. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was the last one that I read.

What kind of impression do you like to leave people?

I hope not to leave a bad one. I'm not obsessed with what people think of me. I'm more obsessed with what I can control, like how I sound, and the studio for example, how my music sounds. Or when I'm playing the solo part, how can I be better. What people think of me is not something I can control, there's pretty much nothing I can do. To some people, I might be an asshole, it's fine, it's normal. When I reflect on the question myself, there are a lot of people that I don't like, so I imagine there are also a lot of people that don't like me. We can't love everyone.

What's your perspective on life?

Keep making music, and hopefully good music. Have a good life and have fun. Touring and discovering countries like China.

There is a Chinese report about you, saying that Glam'mag magazine just selected you as one of the sexiest men alive, two years in a row. Do you know that?

It's a fake story. Who would have said that? I believe it's a fake magazine. It's a joke. The other day when I was performing in Shenzhen, a girl came to me and said the same thing, and my band members were laughing at me, they were like, come on, look at you. How can I remove it?

How have you changed through the years?

I don't know, maybe I play better, getting better at what I do. I don't wanna portray myself in ten years or so. Just seize the day and have fun.