Derek Miller-Juno winner

Page 19

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Derek: In a friend? A quality? Sense of humor.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

D: It's real easy to get sad and mad mixed up sometimes. What makes me angry? I guess it would probably be. . . this communication breakdown makes me mad. (Windspeaker messed up on the time zone conversion and was an hour late for our phone interview with Derek. We suspect his answer to this question was a good-hearted dig at our expense.)

W: When are you at your happiest?

D: When I'm creating or making something out of nothing. Hence music, I guess.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?

D: Desperate.

W: What one person do you most admire and why?

D: Probably my grandfather on my mother's side. Because of his patience. And through all the years that I've know him, when he was raising me, when I was a kid, I never heard him say a bad thing about anybody. So that's probably why. He was so kind-hearted. And non-judgmental, I guess.

W: What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?

D: Walk away, I guess. Walk away from many things, from many difficult things. And to stay strong in my beliefs while I was walking away.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?

D: Haven't done it yet.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?

D: Knowing that I've made a timeless and classic piece of work. Just knowing that I've done that, that it encapsulates everything that I've worked towards in terms of technical ability, into the metaphysical world, into the physical world, and the way that it strikes a fire or lights a fire and inspires people to be the best that they can be. And that's the type of work that I am looking towards. But it just rocks. A piece of work that is just classic and timeless, I don't think it's ever really achievable. I don't know if it's achievable, because I'm so picky. I don't know if it will ever get done.

W: If you couldn't do what you're doing today, what would you be doing?

D: Trying to figure out how I could do what I am today.

W: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

D: Never lose your cool.

W: Did you take it?

D: Tried to, as much as I can. Sometimes it gets frustrating but, yeah, you can't lose your cool.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?

D: I don't know. I never really thought about it. . . How do I hope to be remembered? You do this all the time when you're thinking about somebody, you know, that you miss, and the thing that mostly always strikes me is you've always got a smile when you're remembering them, so hopefully I'll be remembered with a smile.