"Why Shaggs’ Own Thing and not Philosophy Of The World? The reason is, Philosophy of the World is bad and Shaggs’ Own Thing is a beautiful, sad record. It’s not like what people normally think about The Shaggs; it’s not them at their most shambolic. It doesn't get you in the gut and it’s not ridiculous. It’s really not a train wreck. Well, maybe it is like a train wreck, or maybe more like a badly assembled car that still gets you where you want to go. It’s not a smooth ride, but it is beautiful. It’s like another language. There’s nobody else like them. They sound just how they should sound. But this record didn’t actually have much of an impact because it was actually subtle."

"I've got a great friend, Todd Robinson, who runs a shop called Luna Music in Indianapolis, and we've been on lots of road trips together in America over the years. We both bond over music like this, stuff that has an American alt-psych-folk-rock feel. I find it a really appealing sound, and it's usually lifted by a great voice. Gold Leaves have that with Grant Olsen, who has such a beautiful voice. It's part beautiful, part-weary, part-determined, part-resigned. The music, too, is all a bit casual on the outside, a bit Lee Hazlewood, a bit Scott Walker, a bit melancholy, but it all comes together into something really special. We played this driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. It was perfect.
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"Braveheart was another one that sort of encapsulates a lot of themes, and it’s very cinematic, it’s beautiful. I love the simplicity of that world, I’m a cowboy at heart. And I just love the idea of sort of, like, meat and hands and dirt and filth. I think the action was tremendous and violent and brutal. I thought the love story was delicate and romantic and beautiful and deeply felt. I love the sort of underdog themes: every man in his circumstance, these are things that sort of run deep in my body. The performances were great. I feel like if I was born in another era, it would be in that time or it’s a time I would like to be in. Really, really fantastic."

"I grew up watching western films, and for someone to slow down the pacing to a sort of a western drama — I just thought was so incredibly well done. The acting in it was absolutely phenomenal. The cinematography of it was beautiful. The tone, the production — just everything about it. Go down the list of everything about all the departments of a film and I feel like everybody nailed it on that one — just knocked it out of the park. It’s just such a beautiful piece of film to watch. Sometimes I like to just play it in the background with the volume off — just to be looking at the imagery of it. Oh, man. Watch it with the lights off. It’s awesome."

"Oh God, yes. Cheers. It teaches you that the camera is a weapon that can be deployed brilliantly. What is beautiful about I Am Cuba is that, as showy as it is, it’s not style for no point. It’s an expansive vision of the rot that we brought to Cuba. Whether you agree with its politics or not, it’s not really the issue; it’s really human, and you understand… Well, a poet wrote it. Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote it. You understand the humanity of the people in it. Whether they are subject to humiliation, or to the humiliation of capitalism, well, that’s almost secondary to their own inner lives. The movie validates their inner lives, and the camera is a weapon in doing so. Beautiful."

"Beautiful drumming and bass playing. And the song I really like is called ‘The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game’. It’s a timeless sound with really wonderful bass parts that are so intriguing. Those kind of soulful bass bits were just wonderful and their voices are so classy. It’s the classiness of it, you know? It’s cool, wonderful rhythm and this is as good as it gets, probably. It doesn’t take me back, listening to it these days; it just impresses me more. Like, wow! How did they do that? How did they get that sound then? What a beautiful mix. I’m always impressed by the balance of things. I’m blown away by the balance. How they did it, I don’t know."