Some of the pieces get filled in right away, and some of them take a little longer. At first Paul and I had a vague idea of what we wanted our band to be like, but as time went on we began to home in on what we were trying to achieve. We saw plenty of bands doing things we didn’t like, and every time we saw them, we were able to refine our vision. Paul and I were primarily songwriters and singers. We could play instruments, but at demo level. We needed the rest of the band to fully realize our vision. After the Mott Street disaster, we got ourselves a loft at 10 East Twenty-third Street. It was the same kind of thing, half practice space, half crash pad. What we mainly did, when we weren’t sneaking girls up there, was sit around and brainstorm about the kind of musicians we needed. First on the list was a drummer. One afternoon I ran across an ad in Rolling Stone that said, “Drummer available—will do anything.” I called the guy on the telephone, and even though he was in the middle of a party, he took my call.
