Do you have plans to bring “Music for Dogs” to the United States?
I have gotten so many invitations to do it. It was the most fun I’ve ever had doing a show. But I am a little afraid of [becoming] the “Music for Dogs” person. I’d like to do it again. It is pretty tempting.

And what is Lola Belle doing right now?
She is going to have her piano lesson today, as she does everyday. Well, she plays on the record, doing one of her pieces on “Bodies in Motion”. And she’s just finishing her Christmas record actually. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you do anything for an hour a day you can get really good at it. And she’s really good at playing piano…. She got really bad cancer, went blind. She was terrified. She wouldn’t move, so we wanted to do something. This person told us, “I taught my dogs to play the piano!” [And we responded] “Teach Lola Belle!” So she did, and it’s been great. According to the vet, she was supposed to be dead a year ago. She has pancreatic cancer, which is very, very deadly. At this point, there is a very advanced treatment called angiogenesis, for animals and humans. Its premise is tumors commandeer their own blood supply. If you cut the blood supply off, the tumor dies. It’s been amazing to watch her come back to life and to start playing.

What more can you say about her Christmas album?
Her style is very authoritative, pretty aggressive. She plays chords, notes, and she also walks along the keyboard, which a lot of keyboard players do not do.

Earlier, you made some fatalistic comments about recent tragedies, like in the Gulf of Mexico, and how it relates to the Obama administration. But you immediately wanted to take them back. Does that mean you still believe there’s room for optimism?
I am an optimist — really because I don’t know any better. I don’t have any more coherent reason for being an optimist than for being a pessimist. Being an optimist is less painful, frankly. It makes it easier for me to go on, and there are plenty of reasons to think of to go on. One is dogs. One is that I want to make stuff that’s beautiful, and I try to do that. And that makes things worth it…. I don’t know. Can art and music change stuff? If nothing else, it’s fascinating to watch it unfold.

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