"This album was mixed by Kevin Shirley and I think he did an awesome job because you can hear John Bonham doing more than he did on recordings. I think that’s probably because of the way the songs were written, because after being on the road they’d developed the songs a bit and a lot of the things you listen out for, like the subtleties on the record, they exaggerate them and that goes from the drums right up to the singing. This is just one of those recordings where you can hear them exaggerating the things that people love about these songs and how they grew on the night into some kind of monster and the material went with it."

"It's one of the earlier records for me, I started listening to it when I was 19 or 20. I think it made me realise that I wanted to get better at music, it pushed me to want to learn more than three chords. Pet Sounds is so pristine, while Smiley Smile sounds unfinished. I guess it is unfinished, and I know Brian Wilson was never happy with the way it turned out, but whatever grievances there are, I love it. It's a huge influence on me, it was definitely like my music school. Figuring out those harmonies and those chords really pushed my ears and helped me understand music theory in a deeper way. I mean I like it it has that unfinished edge and a more playful sound to it than Pet Sounds. I love Pet Sounds but it's so polished that it doesn't have the charm to it that Smiley Smile has. You can hear that charm lyrically, songs about vegetables and Woody Woodpecker. That song 'She's Going Bald' is amazing! It's funny and also sublime, all at once. 'Windchimes' is one of the most beautiful moments in music, and lyrically he's just writing about some windchimes hanging on his porch; somehow he makes it sound like the most sentimental and beautiful thing. I remember being bowled over."

"If I could pick a song that I could go back in time and write, this is it. I think it's a perfect composition from start to finish, the melody to the drum groove, it’s really hard man. I think if I was to play that drum groove on its own a lot of people would think how does this fit into anything? And the fact this man's made this love song, that can be played in soundsystems, you can listen to it at home, it's so like transferable and I just love that about it. There's no right or wrong place to play it. I could play this at my wedding, I could play this if I’m going through a break up and I’m at home on my own, I could play this at a gig. I mean, for me it’s just a perfect song. And I think for the album, I was more concerned with writing songs than I was creating music for improvisation. I can do that, it wasn’t about trying to prove that, I want you to listen to this from start to finish, everything should be a great song. That was a good three and a half minutes. I was trying to get that with a lot of the tracks where it just takes you on this journey and that's a great example."