But I didn't really study playing just drums, I played a lot of marimba and vibraphone and steel drum. At Northern Illinois University. I studied musical composition, which is almost like graphic design, except you use notes instead of words. That's why I could make the transition into graphic design. In both areas you have to be aware of the big picture, which you narrow down and divide up into smaller pictures that you then work with.
Composition is a contrived process.
You have to have little melodic nuggets in your head in order to make it work, and not everyone has that. Erik has nuggets bouncing and rattling around in his head all the time. Me, on the other hand, I don't have any. Yes, music and safety grating, and a lot of warehouse work. I also worked as a mover with the Chicago Student Movers, and I was a produce man at a health food store.