Gruff Rhys

"It’s about an accountant from Hull who lives in Belgium — an unlikely combination for a harrowing pan-global psychedelic adventure. It’s a great book."

"Brenda Chamberlain’s A Rope of Vines. I used to follow her ghost around. She was a writer and painter from Bangor in Wales. I’ve lived in some of her former homes and grew up in the village where she ran a radical printing press in the 1930s. This book is about her time living in Greece and has a particularly disturbing opening paragraph that sets the troubled tone for the rest of her book, and her life for that matter."

"Raw blues. This is from the 1920s but sounds contemporary. When I was recording Candylion I tried my hand at it on Spanish guitar. "

"A college rock album with great melodic songs shrouded under fuzz which made it all the more powerful. I used to hitchhike places to see bands and I saw them perform. Their enjoyment felt genuine."

"When I was 15 they were my favourite band and partly responsible for me becoming a songwriter. Their lack of communication skills spoke more to me than eloquent party records. "

"I played a festival with Snoop Lion, the reincarnated Snoop Dogg. On this there are songs that are pro-gun control, which is radically different to some of his previous records. I’m interested in people who have reincarnated themselves. "

"A band I used to see around Bangor in the 1980s. It was all about the energy. It reminds me of being a teenager and being open-minded about music."

"A beautiful record that I’ve been enjoying over the past year with very understated songwriting by a woman called Linn Osterberg. She has her own distinctive voice."