"I recently realised that I was leaving the Thompson Twins out of my list of influences because I subconsciously felt they were embarrassing. But I listened to a lot of Thompson Twins. Into the Gap was my favourite when I was 12 or 13. When I go back and revisit those records, some of it sounds a little dated, but actually they hold up really well. I feel like the songwriting of the Thompson Twins is one of the overlooked treasures of the 80s. It's really, really good. There are songs that tend towards the cheesy side, like 'Doctor Doctor', but if you listen to the deep songs on those records, the songwriting is fantastic. The lyrics are really, really good. That's what was on repeat when I was just starting to write songs. The ages 12 through 17 were when I felt I was completely defined by music, completely engulfed by it. You rarely saw me without a set of headphones on because I was trying to block out the rest of the world. Which is funny now – the only time nowadays I put a set of headphones on is to listen to mixes. I don't ever, ever wear an iPod. I barely even listen to music, which is no joke. But back then I was soaking up music like a sponge."

"That was a big album for us. Just the title alone amused us. From a sonic perspective, this one sounded fantastic. We were drawn to it because of the simplicity and the way it’s put together. It transcended punk, because it was such an important album for a lot of musicians in the 70s that were still hippies. Them boys had our attitude, and we liked that attitude. We liked the Clash, too, but we didn’t really like any of the other punk bands. But this album, even if it didn’t have the surface, the title and all the hype, you’d still think it was a fucking great album. It could have been a Metallica album. We could have played that album. We had a little bit of the anti-establishment attitude in songs like ‘Strong Arm of the Law’, which didn’t get played on radio despite being a single, because it was anti-police. We looked like hippies but we had the attitude of punks. That period was a melting point of different musical styles, and as punk faded we were there to take its place, as was the new romantic movement, which was the other side of the coin – we’d be doing Top of the Pops with Motörhead and Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran."