"Obviously we gravitate to those we love, and I suppose the B52's did all the groundwork for the campy disco rock a la Scissor Sisters that followed decades later. They are true originals and may have been the soundtrack to a John Water's movie. I lost count of the amount of times I danced to ‘Rock Lobster’ and tried to learn the who's who list of names on 52 Girls. The brilliant thing about being a pop musician is that you get to meet all of your teen idols. We toured with The B52's and I stayed in Woodstook at Kate Pierson's Lazy Meadow's Silver-line Caravan site, where I consequently felt the drums of an Indian pow wow coming up through the water of the river through my feet (which I often hear on the intro to ‘A Little Respect’ but it isn’t actually part of the music… spooky!"

"Look, X-Ray Spex is amazing, I could talk about them all day, but I put The Slits, because sonically nothing sounds like them and nothing will ever sound like them again. Their harmonies, the drums, Budgie, Palmolive, oh god, where do you start with The Slits? I mean their name is The Slits. To be 14-years-old in that scene, just to create what they made? If you look at The Sex Pistols at that time, they were a prefabricated band, but not The Slits. The lyrics are so good. They're another one of those bands where it's on every level. Every single layer is so creative and interesting and incredible. It's really multi-faceted. From their personalities, to their feminism, to the politics, which were wishy-washy in this crazy way, but sonically, nothing sounds like that. It was primitive. It was really provocative, it really provoked society and it was so cool. You can't compare anything to The Slits."

"That album for me was just…It sounds like they’re – instead of using a drum kit on their songs they will just tap a pencil on a desk into a microphone. That album, for me, also is a testament to great song writing, that you don’t need a lot of production. I think that helps me be relaxed about making an album when I started the Drums. I said to myself, “Look, I have no money. I’m riding my bike 6 miles to work to work at a shitty outlet mall only to ride back and make music.” I couldn’t afford to make a record. Knowing that Beat Happening did that with a pencil and a desk for a drum kit…I have this rule, if the song is good just by whistling it, then you don’t really need a bunch of gear and production. People will connect to the melody, and people will connect to the lyrics. So, Beat Happening was big for me."

"It’s such a sick song. Just listening to the lyrics, how he can juxtapose sounding happy, but also when you listen it’s quite melancholy what they’re saying you know – “Life, life, tell it like it is, you don’t have to die before you live”. I think I always go back to Sly in particular, across his discography from a production point of view - how his drums sound so crisp, and at the end when you get into the break. I just listen to it and I’m like man, how did you record this? I think the 70s in general… what were they on man? How does the music sound so crisp and completely knock when you put it on a speaker or a soundsystem, how is it still so strong? And then I play Drake and it’s like… it doesn't sound the same. It’s not that I’m living too much in nostalgia or trying to be something I’m not, there’s just something strong."

"What don't I say about Aja? We all have our different experiences with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, but everything that they've created throughout the years is really awesome. I have a few albums of theirs I love; Can't Buy A Thrill, Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic, but there's a number of reasons why I am totally in love with Aja. It stems from the personnel, the feel, and how much it was a stab in another direction of pop culture. It was anti-pop, it was a bit on the outskirts of everything, I think. It's always funny listening to Donald Fagen singing about stuff because it's like, 'what's the guy rambling on about?' sometimes. A couple of my favourite musicians are on it; like Steve Gadd and, again, Michael McDonald. When I realised this was Michael McDonald singing background I lost my fucking mind, like, straight up. I always loved the Doobie Brothers and I knew his hits because of hip hop and stuff, but I remember being like 'Who's this magical person singing these dissonant chords behind the changes with ease with this weird timbre of voice?' – and you look at the credits and of course it's Michael McDonald. Aja, if I can't listen to it in its entirety then I get mad; I get pissed because I want to go through the whole album every time. One of my favourite moments on the album is Steve Gadd playing out on actual song 'Aja'; the way that just like the drum feels and everything – I don't know how to play drums but I love to try to act like I play drums to that one moment when he takes a slight solo at the end. Steve Gadd was always one of my favourite drummers ever because of the choices of records and stuff that he would do. Aja is he was he was one of those moments that it spanned out to everybody at that point. It was like at the height of their popularity. That was what happened and it was perfect."