"I love female empowerment in pop, and there was a lot going on at the time when I think back. There was a time when women were fucking fed up of dealing with stereotypes. “I felt Destiny's Child were very much at the forefront of that, saying “Right, we're gonna have some fun now. “Bills Bills Bills” was part of that and then “Say My Name” - I'm gonna call you out. “I remember releasing “Fill Me In”, which came out the exact same week as “Say My Name” in the UK. It was my first ever number one and even though I was like “Wow” and I couldn't stop grinning, I remember I couldn't get my head around being anywhere near Destiny's Child. They were number two in the charts and it was one of my favourite tunes. Ah man, I had posters of them on my wall. It was unbelievable."

"No, no. Not like this. How do you call it? Neo-Soul. I had a chance to listen to pop music: Beyoncé, Destiny's Child. But Jill Scott - her vocals are very strong technically. I love her. I like her smile and I like how she plays with her voice. She knows what she's doing, she has control of her voice. I needed those ladies for my own projects. I'm very curious, I like to learn new stuff every day. I learnt a lot from Jill Scott, in terms of technical skills."

"I rekindled a fondness for hip-hop having spent so much time in Houston, Texas, which lately has been revealed as the unexpected destination to make rap and hip-hop records. That's due largely to the presence of the Geto Boys and Bushwick Bill, Scarface and even Destiny's Child. When ZZ Top were recording the album Rhythmeen our studio was undergoing a facelift so we went into an alternate studio, John Moran's Digital Services, where many rap records have been made. There was the left room and the right room, adjoined with the shared group lounge area. I was trying to figure out how the hip-hop guys and rappers got such great-sounding backbeats. And of course what they didn't have was this kinda bluesy guitar. To this day ZZ Top aspires to keep some crunch and grit as part of the fabric. What started the ball rolling back in that direction was the movie Straight Outta Compton. All of a sudden I'm watching the genesis of NWA and what really started such a robust scene. I'd watch that movie ten times. And I probably will [again]!"

"This was a bit later in my life, around 2000. This signals the end of me having hang-ups really. I remember when 'Re-Rewind' by Artful Dodger came out, and I thought, ""This is fucking cool!"" So much about it confused me. It didn't have chords or a bassline really, it was made of odd sounds like breaking glass that didn't really fit. And then it had this guy on top of it singing this really pleasing, really hooky, catchy little melody. It was the furthest thing away from me at the time. I was into crashing drums and cymbals, but I knew there was something in there that really turned me on musically. When I admitted that I liked that to myself, it really opened up a lot of doors to me, into R&B and Destiny's Child and R. Kelly, lots of stuff that would have been previously out of my usual sphere of influence. I embraced it, and there were things I really liked. With people like R. Kelly, I spend 50 per cent of the time laughing at him and the rest thinking, this is actually good. A huge influence on my music is the singing quickly, and the singing something absurd, and then something serious, hooky, melodic, quick and light. Craig David did that brilliantly. The singles on that album are fucking amazing! He kind of lost his way after that, but I wanted to show that that whole world is very much embraced by me, and to show that we shouldn't be snobby, that it doesn't matter whether the influence is The Cheeky Girls or Pink Floyd, it just doesn't matter where it comes from. If it's good, I embrace it, and I think Craig David is a perfect example of someone who is laughably bad but secretly a pretty good artist."