"There’s not really a road map for becoming an artist other than the following: get up off your ass every day and make an effort; don’t be afraid to try and fail, and don’t wait for permission to get started; if you don’t have money, get creative with materials that you find or make; believe without a doubt that you were meant for something more, and that no one else can say something the way you can. If you’re fascinated (like I am) by the New York artist scene in the 60s and 70s, and how the AIDS epidemic in the 80s swept through and took its toll, “Just Kids” will blow your mind."

"Black Like Me, but I felt a way, because as I'm reading I realized it's about a white man dressed in black face in the '60s to see what it feels like to be black. It's cool to see these detailed experiences of how white people treated him, but at the same time, he was able to just go back to his regular white life. But we deal with this shit everyday. We can't just wipe our color off — which is great, I love my color, but it definitely made me feel a way. I'm still glad I saw the perversion that was happening with the treatment of black people, so for that reason, I appreciate the book."

"A film about this extraordinary, charming, unegotistical group of LA session musicians in the 60s and early 70s who played on everything, and didn’t publicly get proper credit. They made Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, they played the backing tracks for the Beach Boys, they’re on Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ and Glenn Campbell’s Wichita Lineman (with Carol Kaye’s bassline). You realise all these records have a sound, and the sound is this band. I wanted us to go to LA to make an album [2012’s Elysium] and record in Capitol Studios because of this film. It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen about the process of making pop music."

"Like I say, it all happened at the same time when I was 18, when I suddenly discovered all of that 60s culture. Really, The Beatles should be there as well but I wanted to avoid putting stuff on the list that was too obvious. Also with this list, I wanted some stuff that was formative, as opposed to just the stuff I listen to a lot and there's something about that album, Forever Changes. I don't know what it is about 1967, I hadn't really thought about that. 69's a good year as well. 64 was a really good year, 59 was a good year. 73 was a good year."

"There’s so many Beatles songs that I could have chosen, my entire list could have been made from them and they’ve all meant quite a lot to me. I picked “In My Life” because everyone relates to that one in a way, everyone has experienced that feeling of when they go back to their hometown and the little odd things that spark off a memory. “I think it was John who wrote this one and he was quite young when he wrote it. I grew up in a place called Menlove Gardens and he grew up on Menlove Avenue, so I felt the connection. I was born in Penny Lane in 1958, so it was the ‘60s when I was growing up and a lot of the landmarks were the same. I remember reading a magazine that had a page of the original lyrics, and it was talking about getting the 72 bus at Penny Lane into town. I recognised all of the roads and it was very close to home for me. Even if I hadn’t recognised all of that though, I still think that this song has the power to do that. “It does bring me back, to places that I’ll remember all my life. I go back to Liverpool now and a lot of places have changed. The town is great and always very vibrant, but there’s a park called Calderstones Park and it’s very beautiful and very green and places like Princes Avenue and Menlove, they’re all full of trees and very green and quite lovely really, which people often don’t associate with Liverpool. My memories are mixed with these beautiful parks, greenery and trees, but at the same time the city centre was quite stark, but very vibrant in the ‘60s, it was a bustling city. “I think if you live on planet earth then The Beatles are an influence, even if you don’t know it. Even if you’re Jay Z, The Beatles are an influence. The Beatles, Bob Dylan and a couple of other people changed music into an art form, rather than a commodity. At a certain point in the ‘60s, all of a sudden you had people making artistically fantastic records, breaking the boundaries technologically and emotionally. It turned into something else and although it feels like it’s turning back into what it was right now, I feel like The Beatles and Bob Dylan were responsible for that change"