"I have a weird relationship with David Bowie. There's a part of me that didn't want to include him out of bloody-mindedness, not out of any disrespect to him but because I get sick of talking about David Bowie, what with all those comparisons we drew. People said that Suede were like a mixture of The Smiths and Bowie, when actually there are all these other comparisons that could have been made. But I can't get away from the fact that he is a huge influence on what I do, and you can't get away from the fact that he simply is one of the greatest artists of all time and he made some of the greatest music of the 1970s, and six or seven unbelievably good records. Low is just one of them, I could have chosen Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, Scary Monsters, Young Americans. But I've chosen Low because I love the mystery of it, even though it's not his best song album - there's no 'Quicksand' or anything like that. You can tell that he's shifting, and looking for something else. My favourite track on it is 'Warszawa', with its amazing Wagnerian stirring in the music. Suede's 'Europe Is Our Playground' had a sense that it was a version of that. I love the way Low doesn't explain itself, and that it's a really odd record. I love the chronology of it, the fact that three of my favourite records ever were all made around the same time: Low, Never Mind The Bollocks and Music For Airports."

"When I got into that album I must have been 19 and in the same way with Andrew Hill’s Point Of Departure, it definitely changed something from the minute I put it on, more so than any of these records for me. It was around the same time as the Blue Note sale at FOPP, when I would buy loads of CDs and listen to them top to bottom a few times over. The album has the most beautiful dark quality to it and the fact it's called Nefertiti, was this all planned? Are you trying to reference this Kemetic Queen? And then even how do you even do that beyond the notes, because it's there when you listen to the mix and the atmosphere. We can't answer it, but he must have. This tune in particular, ‘Fall’, it's very cyclical, it's very repetitive. There's a riff that just keeps coming back and puts you in this really interesting, beautiful trance and it's so dark, but it's so beautiful. I guess on Dark Matter it’s that thing as well. Darkness to me isn’t bad, it’s another thing. Dark and light. My brother made me laugh the other day when he asked ‘If there's a speed of light, is there a speed of dark?’ and I was like ‘Oh My God’, but I just think our relationship with light and dark is very interesting. The minute you say something’s dark people think negatively and that's not what it's about. Dark is sick too, it’s beautiful. There’s so much intricacy, delicacy, beauty in that."

"Where do we even start with Fred Hammond? I grew up going to church, the faith is really strong in my family, I don't think there was a week that passed where he didn’t get played in my house so I’ve got a great love for his music. It’s just interesting how gospel music in particular breaks the idea that music is for entertainment. Music shouldn't always be for entertainment, I think that’s an important notion. Music is a gift, music is given to us, whether you believe in nature or a creator, however you want to call it. And it's tough when you become an artist and you have to step into commerce for your art, which is tricky you know, you’ve got to make bread, but I always need things to remind me it isn't always about getting on stage and making people jiggy. Music is a spiritual thing. I think gospel music does that best. The music that resonates in some sort of deity does that best ‘cos its not trying to appeal to anyone in a way. This is like worship, devotion. And Fred Hammond’s catalogue on top of that is just so funky, so sick, the arrangements, his vocals. He’s one of my favourite artists full stop. I just geek out over his stuff. And the fact that I've just always had him in my life. It's funny when I talk to other people that didn't grow up in church and stuff they’re like, ‘Yeah, man, Fred Hammond was in my house every week too!’"