"Dirty Mind is the first one where I feel Prince became the Prince we all know and love. There had been somewhat suggestive lyrics with 'Soft & Wet', which came out earlier, but this is where he went full force with songs like 'Sister' and 'Head'. The record cover, the whole package, really says something to me. Instead of looking like a black guy from Minneapolis, he looks New Wave and you can't really tell what he is. He's got bed springs behind him and the album is called Dirty Mind, the first song is called 'Dirty Mind' and it just hits you over the head with this new direction. Maybe my favourite song on the record is 'Partyup', the last song on it. I understand there's rumours that he sort of traded that song with Morris Day. He said if you give me that song I'll record an album for you or I'll put together The Time For You. It's just an amazing song. Spoon covered it a long time ago for this Prince compilation."

"I think that's why I chose Hunky Dory. And you know why? I don't think there were that many hits on it that were the same. Well there were hits, but it wasn't Ziggy Stardust and well, you know that song, 'Kooks'? It might be because of that song. It's one of the sweetest songs I've heard and I don't understand why more people don't sing it. It's so beautiful. It's a really calm, sweet side of him. I love him so much. I feel strong feelings about him. Also I think some of it is really badass. My friend and I were talking about our favourite Bowie records once, and he said Hunky Dory and so I went back and listened to it and I was like, “Oh my god, he's so right”. It's so soft and it's so gentle and singer-songwritery and I like that about it, as it's more about his skill, than about the image. Man, 2016 was a bitch."

"We’re often talking about ParaNorman as being John Hughes meets John Carpenter, and that was intentional. It was to try and tell a spooky story that was almost… you know, we talked about it like being directed by Sam Raimi as well. It was to try and combine all those elements: All the angst of a movie set in high school, where your issues are more about, you know, being bullied by the kid who lives down the lane, but to couple that with a movie about the more fictional horrors of monsters. I like that play. They’re actually a really good marriage. I’ve talked about ParaNorman being the characters from The Breakfast Club dropped into the plot of The Fog — and The Fog, I would say, would be one of the other influential ones. Right from day one of writing, I think. I love that movie, as bad as it is…"

"I didn't hear Neu! until about six years ago. I knew about them via the Bowie and the Eno connection. When I got the albums through I fell in love with them immediately, but more importantly I could hear how massively influential they had been. I came to it so late! I might have realised how important they were if I'd bought it back in 1975… I have young kids in, doing sessions for the programme, and they'll go, 'Oh yeah, I love this album.' And then you'll hear their drummer playing the motorik beat. You hear that beat everywhere. I'd say that Neu! are in the top ten most influential bands in Britain at the moment and have been for years. Listen to bands like Toy and The Horrors. It's so far reaching. You can hear the influence on PiL on tracks like 'Hero'. And Joy Division? Of course."

"It’s a very personal choice because when I came to America from mainland China, I was an actress, but I never knew about Hollywood. I had heard of Hollywood but we didn’t have access to see Hollywood movies. A photographer was taking pictures of me and said, “You remind me of this actress named Audrey Hepburn.” I said, “Who is that?” He said, “Bai Ling, you have to watch her films,” and he found me Roman Holiday. That was the first Hollywood movie I’d ever seen. And it’s still one of my favorites, because it first introduced me to Hollywood — beautiful, romantic, very graceful, and elegant. I would like to remake it — I hope some director can help me, maybe Steven Soderbergh or Wong Kar-Wai. [Laughs] What I remember about those old Hollywood films is that when a leading lady and a leading man meet, they don’t have to say anything; you already know they’re in love. You root for them; you want them to be together. That’s the magic of Hollywood. I think somehow today we’ve lost a little bit of it, and you don’t care as much if two characters get together. But Roman Holiday makes you smile, makes your heart smile, makes your heart sing for these two people. Gregory Peck is gentle and elegant, the kind of tall leading man that I like. I think we should remake the film. Everybody in America, in Asia, and in Europe, would appreciate it. The beautiful, pure, romantic story — I wish I would play a role like that, because I have a romantic soul. I’d like to bring that purity to the audience, to have their fantasy fulfilled."

"This is more of a current favourite and I first heard it when it came out. I'd left Supergrass and started writing for the first solo album and I got quite deep into that when I heard Shields, but really it was like the bridge between Here Come The Bombs and Matador. I just love the fact that I can hear the room on this record; I can hear the rawness of it, I can hear their love of sounds which is something that I'm a bit of a nerd about and those are some of the things just grabbed me straight away. It's so weird; sometimes a bass guitar sound can be enough to make me love or hate a band. It's quite shallow when you think about it, because it should be about the lyrics, and the package, and the melody, and everything about it but no, it's like: 'If that bass is shit then I don't like it!' I can get quite anal about those sorts of things, so Grizzly Bear are another one that I aesthetically gravitate to towards immediately, and then appreciate later the songwriting and the melodies, and Edward Droste's voice is similar to that of Midlake's Tim Smith. There's a similar quality in both of their voices that I really appreciate. And I like their playing with synths as well; they're not too overt or progressive rock-like. Yeah, this was definitely an inspiring album for me. I guess, if I'm being really honest, it made me think that I wanted to write a record like that. It's not screaming out hit singles all over it and I'm sure this wasn't an easy album for their record label to present to radio stations, but I really like that. When you've been in a band for 20 years [and] with each album, you get this extremely intense pressure to provide a three-minute pop single and I just wanted out. But writing those pop singles did come naturally and I don't think we'd have done as well as we'd done if I hadn't and I think I still do. Even on Matador I still can't help containing things in three or three-and-a-half minutes. It's like what Supergrass did on 'Strange Ones' or even 'Caught By The Fuzz'. There's a lot of information on those songs and it flies by. I guess that's just the natural way that I write. But then again, having listened to a lot of music on soundtracks over the years, the music on this album made me realise that I don't have to contain it all. It's like 'Detroit' on Matador; I really like the groove on that, so I just kept it going. It satisfies my curiosity like Neu!'s 'Hallogallo' does. I'm happy to sit there for that ten minutes. I think Supergrass came from quite a psychedelic background and that's stayed with me and what I'm into. This is where bands like Grizzly Bear come in, and I think that psychedelic thread runs through a lot of these records."