He was originally studying physics. In high school he had done an IB program as well as a GCSE program which forces you to focus on some subject. He chose what he was good at which was Math and Physics. He had applied to college with that as a major and had been excepted into stony brook where he came to the realization that he didn't want to spend his whole life doing calculations, he wanted to do something more aesthetic, that dealt with emotion. So he transferred having had no musical training.
His advise was that you should be involved with something that you are really into. For him it was difficult to switch majors because usually people who go into music have musical training prior, he hadn't. So is you don't have musical training you have to work that much harder, just practicing constantly. Also you have to be aware what is happening in the field and just listen to a lot of music and read how to's.
