"This was after a trip to Brazil when I went down there with my mum and my sister and we did some shows. It was an intense moment in my life because Kate had been diagnosed with cancer and her health was pretty precarious. We saw there was a fairly decent run for the next couple of months – the treatment was kind of working and she was feeling relatively okay – so I booked some gigs in Brazil. We proceeded to have one of the most beautiful, decadent, life-affirming trips I ever took in my life, and it was during that little working vacation that I discovered Tim Maia's music, and I've been a fan ever since. He sadly passed away in the 1990s. I love that he represents a real amalgam of so many cultures, as a lot of great Brazilian artists do: African, Spanish, Portuguese, he's just this melting pot of great culture and music and also tremendously individual at the same time. He is certainly well known in large sections of the world, but is a bit of a kept secret in the West."

"I got into this a few years back when I was really getting going with the solo thing. I thought, “This is unusual.” It reminds me a bit of ESG. I really love that delivery – those female vocals that have a drive, power and confidence but are punk and not flying around everywhere. It’s edgy and cuts through in a really cool way. It’s so refreshing in these days of immediacy to hear something like this. I hear some debut EPs that sound like really expensive records and you think, “Where’s the growth coming from here?” When we first started out it was always about playing together ’cos there was no other option – I was too young to get a gig and I wasn’t allowed in venues – so you play, write, mess around and watch movies. There were no distractions, we were just a gang in a living room in front of an open fire, messing around. We did some quick bashed-out B-sides and ropey gigs but it was about the attitude. I wish I saw more uncertainty and vulnerability in young artists."