"I saw The Beastie Boys when I was about 14, perhaps around the corner at Hammersmith Odeon. I was fucking obsessed. There were loads of twats like me wearing ill-fitting Adidas, looking like Harry Enfield characters. We were so into it, but very young. I started off with Run DMC, though, I liked the stuff where it was just a drum machine and them singing. We were really into Def Jam, and we pre-empted a big wave of other people being into it. I think we saw Run DMC as well, that was a bit tougher. I guess with Beastie Boys, cynically they were just Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin saying ‘let’s make a band for all the white kids’, and we were just gone, we were away."

"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."

"I picked this, but it's virtually impossible to pick one [Drake record] and not another. There is no inconsistency in Nick Drake as far as I'm concerned, he's just extraordinary. I picked this one because I had to pick an album, I had to put him in there and I could't choose all the albums. I think I did this very honestly - that was the first record I heard by him, and I thought I'll be honest and I'll be loyal to that! 'Time Has Told Me', 'River Man' - it just has so many fucking great songs on it! 'Cello Song', 'Fruit Tree'; it's kind of the classic songs. I don't know what to say about Nick Drake - it's like trying to talk about air or your arm, or just something that's so much a part of your life and has been for so long now. If you want an introduction to Nick Drake, just start there; it's a great place to start. I've never tried to deliberately replicate him, but there's a song on my new album that's a complete rip-off of a guitar intro to one of his songs! It wasn't until Tom [Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers] walked in and went ""ah yeah, Nick Drake, great"" and I was like ""really?!"" And it was right under my nose - I think he's just become such a part of my... everything, I'd never even noticed that I'd gone ahead and done that."

"Leslie West - formerly Leslie Weinstein - was a New York guitar player who played with The Vagrants and lots of other local bands that were coming up in the New York scene. The thing about that record is the producer was Felix Pappalardi, who produced Cream as well as The Youngbloods, and was also an accomplished bass player. So, originally it was just going to be a Leslie West solo record, there was no Mountain, the name of the record was Mountain, but it was by Leslie West. But he didn't have a bass player so Felix Pappalardi played the bass, but the material started coming together so fast. I mean, songs like 'Long Red', I listened to those growing up and, in fact, a few of my songs had their beginning on Mountain songs. Bow buh duh doo dah duuh dow, that began a song called 'Watchin' You' that I wrote, with a flat third; you can hear where it crosses over, that's from 'Never In My Life', a Mountain song. His guitar playing is just undeniable. And of course 'Mississippi Queen' is great, just three chords! When I picked up the guitar and started to play licks and stuff like that, I sound like Leslie West, because intrinsically he's not about speed, he's about melody. Blues-based melody, I'll grant you, but it still holds up to me. I still play it."

"I’ve got to say that this band were a massive influence on late-period Oasis. It was the one album I bought from a review because it said it was a bit like The Beatles, a bit like The Stones, a bit like The Who, really 60s-influenced and all the rest. I put it on the car stereo when I was driving to an Oasis gig and right from the start it was like, 'Wow.' It just blew me away, the lyrics, the playing. And then when we got to see them live and the singer was this giant fat dude. We ended up going on tour with them for two years. I watched them every single night and I thought they were incredible and they became really, really good friends and I still think that this album is a modern masterpiece."