"Pasteur Lappé is a guy from Cameroon who was making music in the late ’70s, and “Sanaga Calypso” was on this collection of experimental African funk music. The first time I heard this song, it reminded me so much of the Clash’s Sandinista! The Clash were obviously influenced by dub and reggae, and they paid homage to those styles very openly and respectfully, but to hear something that reminded me of a song like “Charlie Don’t Surf”—dancey, soulful, very beautiful, and kind of elegiac—it just made me smile. I literally said, “Joe Strummer for sure heard this song!” I like building a small lineage between my own listening experience and the listening experience of somebody I’ve been inspired by, and that’s what this song does for me. It puts me back in the sphere of influence. And it’s catchy."

"This would battle Sufjan Stevens for my favourite album. Lau broke onto the folk scene around the same time as us, and we always felt a kinship because we were also trying to push the boundaries of what we were doing. Where do we fit into folk? I don't know. It's funny you saying you think of us as really established, but we've only won two Radio 2 Folk Awards out of 13 nominations in all those years, and one of those was an audience vote. Good old audiences!
 I've known Aidan since his teens, and he's a really interesting, experimental fiddler. Kris has a great voice, and like me, grew up with his family loving folk. Becky's worked with Martin too, who's great. Live, they're always on fire, often quite anarchic, so exciting, and so full of energy."