"The same could be said about The Matrix movies, all three. A lot of people will be like, “Well, no, just the first one, because the other two weren’t to my fancy.” I liked all three because I like the entire story. What a unique concept that the world is completely fake, and amazing to think that machines could be running things, as I sit here and talk into a machine recorder. It’s just a really forward-thinking concept. I thought it was wonderfully done, and certainly a movie that, from an effects standpoint, changed the way people made movies. It’s one of those movies where people were wowed by the effects, but I think they took a back seat to what a wonderful story it was. It was such a fantastic story."

"It was a left turn within the punk rock scene, it was weird and sort of violent and real. It was in your face and as real as any rock band had been and that record got me through some shit. We all have a record that got us through a break-up or that you listened to when you’re 18 and you think everything’s going to hell and not going to last, and that record got me through that. Actually the first gig I ever did was opening for Black Flag when I was 14, but it was when Ron Reyes was the singer, so I’d followed them closely for a long time – well three years and three years is a long time when you’re 18. But that was the record that fortified it."

"You could be generic and call it krautrock but I think it’s much more than that. I really think it’s the most modern of that era, you can hear it on so many records, especially on The Good, The Bad & The Queen, those kind of filtered drums that just shuffle. You can hear it everywhere. The track ‘Hollywood’ - we were touring America and I had it on repeat. That, ‘Caramel’, ‘Marzipan’... Damon [Albarn] must have nicked ‘Caramel’ for a title for a Blur song, on 13. I love the cover as well. Artwork has always been really important. I think every band will admit that there’s at least three Neu! tracks they love or three Can tracks, but it’s hard to love a whole album. I genuinely love Zuckerzeit."

"Ives's 114 Songs has been a major source of inspiration for me (particularly for my 69 Love Songs and 50 Song Memoir). But that wasn't all he wrote: from 1887 to 1926 Ives wrote 193 songs, and here they all are on six CDs: lullabies, Christmas carols, German operetta emulations, mortal laments, parlor ballads, cowboy dirges, and even election-day commentary on 'Nov. 2, 1920 (An Election)', and 'Vote for Names! Names! Names!', of which Ives says, ""The [three] pianos represent three political candidates, each uttering his own 'hot air slogan'; the singer represents the disillusioned voter."" The texts come 80% from poets (Keats, Kipling, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many anonymous sources) and 20% from Ives himself, whose aw-shucks Americana (as on 'Slugging A Vampire') and gleefully jarring harmonies keep the surprises genuinely surprising. "