"I want to write a book on the history of miming to music on TV. No, I don't, but I want to read it. I’m often surprised at how early the convention of miming to music on TV was subverted. From Ringo riding an exercise bike instead of drums on ‘I Feel Fine’ to the Faces playing football, it seems to be a wink to the camera that’s way ahead of anything else you would see at the time. The Thompson Twins seemed to be the first band solely designed to extend this joke. As a 12-year-old, I was fascinated by the fact I couldn't hear any of the instruments they were playing. They would stand behind guitars, congas and double basses but all you could hear were Prophet 5s and Emulators. I knew it was done as some kind of statement that I couldn’t fathom. These were artists, like the ones who Tony Hancock meets in The Rebel; proper oddball, hat-wearing pranksters. The backs of all the 12-inch singles from Into The Gap joined together to make a map of an island that was in the shape of the members' heads. The cassette version had an hour of alternative versions and mixes. They were a treasure trove for a geeky obsessed fan; they paid so much attention to detail. I now see their endless mixes and alternate versions of songs as a gateway into dub music; the idea that things could be transformed as much by subtracting things as adding them."

"I have a weird relationship with David Bowie. There's a part of me that didn't want to include him out of bloody-mindedness, not out of any disrespect to him but because I get sick of talking about David Bowie, what with all those comparisons we drew. People said that Suede were like a mixture of The Smiths and Bowie, when actually there are all these other comparisons that could have been made. But I can't get away from the fact that he is a huge influence on what I do, and you can't get away from the fact that he simply is one of the greatest artists of all time and he made some of the greatest music of the 1970s, and six or seven unbelievably good records. Low is just one of them, I could have chosen Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, Scary Monsters, Young Americans. But I've chosen Low because I love the mystery of it, even though it's not his best song album - there's no 'Quicksand' or anything like that. You can tell that he's shifting, and looking for something else. My favourite track on it is 'Warszawa', with its amazing Wagnerian stirring in the music. Suede's 'Europe Is Our Playground' had a sense that it was a version of that. I love the way Low doesn't explain itself, and that it's a really odd record. I love the chronology of it, the fact that three of my favourite records ever were all made around the same time: Low, Never Mind The Bollocks and Music For Airports."

"I couldn’t say enough about how important and extreme as the music was, he was never unaware of this dramatic element of what he was doing. It was always staged in a way for maximum drama. There was always maximum drama whenever Glenn was in the building, whether there was an argument, or the music, or a discussion about high art or whatever it was. Branca was so responsible for so much stuff, for energizing this down town scene in a major way. He was one of these artists that you didn’t really experience his music unless you were in front of it. You could hear the records and The Ascension was some of his best work ever and it’s a great record but it didn’t sound anything like what it sounded like to stand in front of it at 110 decibels. He also started his own label and released a couple of the first Sonic Youth records. He asked us to be the first release on his label so there was kind of a mentoring thing going on there as well. It was definitely some of the most important music that was going on in New York at that time, because it was straddling all these worlds. It had one foot in the punk world, one foot in the art scene and then in the Phillip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich kind of world of art music, he had elements of all of that stuff, and beyond all of it, just what he was doing was brilliant"

"I think initially I almost had a resistance to wanting to like Blonde because of how hyped it was, but when I finally heard it I could see through all the hype about Frank Ocean, it was just refreshing to hear. Me and my wife listened to it on a long drive home and we loved it, it was the first time I’d heard him and I thought it was a really cool, really experimental record. I haven’t grown up listening to Hip Hop, I’m kind of rooted in other things, but Blonde really spoke to me and I could really hook onto it stylistically. “It was similar with Beyoncé’s Lemonade, that was really hyped as well, but she did this quite odd record. From what I understand the way it was constructed was editing lots of bits together and that’s how I made my record, from a solo artists point of view it’s a lot more about piecing things together. I found both Blonde and Lemonade really inspiring even though on paper they’re not my genre. “‘Nights’ is a really good song. I really like his subtlety, the way he doesn’t overcook it and I thought that was really different. Blonde is an inspiration for how to make and approach a record. He’s not just relying on a single or four big hits to sell the album or to get the point across. It’s a complete record, it’s got weird little segue-ways and tracks that aren’t particularly commercial, they’re a bit weird and that really spoke to me.”"

"The more I read about the Tropicalia movement, the more it influenced me. I admired the way they worked against a military dictatorship. The official artists, playwrights and poets got together and put on full-on shows rather than just play gigs. They'd put on theatrical events with a theme or have a provocative backdrop that would get them arrested! It's a portal into so many worlds, like when Rogério Duprat had been studying with Stockhausen in Germany and bringing this back to Brazil, Can would also have influenced him in Germany and maybe someone like Cornelius Cardew who was like a British outpost. There's an amazing story about Cardew touring when he eventually turned against Stockhausen and wanted to bring his music to the people. He decided to tour the Isle of Anglesey in 1970 with the Scratch Orchestra and he got kids throwing stones at him during his gigs. Anyway, they ended up recording a few records in Brazil and this is one I play quite a lot, especially a song called 'Relance'. It's a few years after the Tropicalia explosion but Costa comes across really powerfully; it's like the artwork almost points to the Slits artwork but a few years beforehand. She comes across like a really powerful personality and there's a really unusual musicality on the record. This song ['Relance'] has a really heavy rhythm but it's driven by an accordion, which I usually find really off-putting but it seems to make sense here."

"Where do we even start with Fred Hammond? I grew up going to church, the faith is really strong in my family, I don't think there was a week that passed where he didn’t get played in my house so I’ve got a great love for his music. It’s just interesting how gospel music in particular breaks the idea that music is for entertainment. Music shouldn't always be for entertainment, I think that’s an important notion. Music is a gift, music is given to us, whether you believe in nature or a creator, however you want to call it. And it's tough when you become an artist and you have to step into commerce for your art, which is tricky you know, you’ve got to make bread, but I always need things to remind me it isn't always about getting on stage and making people jiggy. Music is a spiritual thing. I think gospel music does that best. The music that resonates in some sort of deity does that best ‘cos its not trying to appeal to anyone in a way. This is like worship, devotion. And Fred Hammond’s catalogue on top of that is just so funky, so sick, the arrangements, his vocals. He’s one of my favourite artists full stop. I just geek out over his stuff. And the fact that I've just always had him in my life. It's funny when I talk to other people that didn't grow up in church and stuff they’re like, ‘Yeah, man, Fred Hammond was in my house every week too!’"