"Around the time that this album was released I was driving my car and I heard 'Man In The Box' [from 1990's Facelift] playing on the radio. To me it sounded like another style of music that was completely out of the leftfield. The incredible combination of Layne [Staley]'s voice and Jerry [Cantrell, guitarist] is just so cool. They were making music like a lot of these bands that was getting played on the radio, and even today in America you need to have songs that can make it onto the radio. They knew that, and they got played all the time. Their vibe was entirely different to KoЯn, and KoЯn's was entirely different to Nirvana, who were in turn different to Pantera. All of these bands were coming out at the same time but they were all making their own unique impressions. It's incredible really. If you look at the history of rock & roll, the beginning of that decade was one of the most exciting times. There was never really anyone with a similar vocal style to Layne though, and that's important too. I think a lot of it is always down to the singer to some extent."

"This was a tough one, because it’s like, oh, Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Chaplin, Buster Keaton. There’s something about City Lights that just… It has all of the perfect acting and physical comedy. But then there’s this pathos to that main character that is just so deep, and you feel it, and it has so many jokes. It’s one of his movies that has a lot of good jokes in it, you know, from the boxing to the cigar. Here you have this guy that’s this hobo driving a Rolls Royce, pushing another hobo out of the way to get the cigar. And it’s just, it’s one of those funny things. That ending when you see his face and she sees him at the same time, and there’s kind of, it’s a smile, but is he sad? Is he happy? You really have no idea of the complications of what’s going on in the moment. He’s just kind of letting it go, and it’s one of the most incredible performances that can kind of put you in there. And it’s a movie that encapsulates all of the things that I love about silent movies, but in a way that has the emotional connection."

"When I was making this list, I kept questioning why I was choosing individual records. There are [other] records that influenced me as a kid but in this moment, when asked for this specific list, I was on tour and we were driving around America in a van, just the four of us in the band, the core of the Babelsberg record, the three musicians: Steve Black, Osian Gwynedd and Kliph Scurlock. Kliph has got a real high-resolution digital file player so he made a playlist that lasted a month. There were certain records we returned to as a group that chimed with us during these particular moments and one of them was this record. I like that Davis has dismissed the trumpet and taken up a synth instead - it's a good example of how to grow old radically rather than mellow out and it informed our tour so, if in doubt, we'd refer to this record live. It makes an interesting case for what works on a high-resolution file or what needs high-resolution [to sound as it should]. I might recommend this record now but if someone listens to it on Spotify, half of the quality of the performance might be shut out due to the frequencies [lost in encoding]."