"In the UK people know Jeffrey Lewis. He is this artistic polymath, he does comics, he's one of the most talented people I've met in my life, he can do anything. I feel if you looked into his notebook it would almost be like looking tin DiVinci's notebook. He can draw anything, write anything. He's got a lot going on, but he's also a super humble guy. This is his first album which he put out through Rough Trade. When I first heard his music I felt it was actual folk music from someone who'd grown up in the East Village. It felt like I was hearing a document of a great person who someone had recorded on a hi-fi in someone's home. He just played his diary to music, but it happened to so interesting and he happened to be a genius so you could put it out as an album. The way Jeff tells a story is unique. He lets words unfold in a way that only someone like Eminem or Notorious BIG – or someone that good! – can. It's great watching someone listen to his songs for the first time: 20 seconds in they're interested; a minute in they're trying to process all the information; three minutes on and they're getting even more intense, but by the end they're 'I cannot believe a person could make a complete statement in something so concise!' His music is like a mathematical proof. You don't realise at the beginning of a song what you're getting into and by the end Jeff has floored you!"

"For me, this is very much a hallmark of where I was able fit in musically in my career. When I started out I was in Montreal, but went to New York periodically and failed miserably with what I was trying to do. It was right at the time that Jeff Buckley was on the rise, and grunge, and that whole movement was incredibly heterosexual, incredibly nihilistic, incredibly guitar-based and very, very dark. I admired it, I'm not against that, but when I was dropped into that equation I was this gay piano-playing opera queen who wanted to be romantic and harken back to other more refined eras. What I was trying to do just didn't make any sense in New York. People would often try to categorise me and say I was cabaret or that I should be doing Broadway. It was very complicated and I never figured it out. Then I was signed to Dreamworks, by Lenny Waronker – whom I believe helped make Pet Sounds. I went to Los Angeles and suddenly realised that I was definitely more part of the Brian Wilson tradition. Whether it was him or Randy Newman or Van Dyke Parks or Harry Nilsson, there was a kind of spot that I could fit into. So I listened a lot to Pet Sounds. You can hear it somewhat on my new album, songs like the last track 'Alone Time', but all through my career there's been a real concentration on harmonies and interesting chord changes and a dreamlike quality. I was able to find my niche through that tradition, as opposed to the East Coast. I have a lot to thank Brian Wilson for, he allowed me to inhabit my world comfortably, as opposed to when I was in New York and I was a total anathema to what was happening there. I can't say that I listened to the album obsessively or that I'm obsessed with him and know all his work, but I definitely feel I am a Wilsonite."