"Since I’ve gone back to learn these early Ride songs for the reunion tour, I’ve noticed how much Robin Guthrie’s playing influenced me, and it harks back to Johnny Marr and George Harrison with little patterns and little sort of partial chords with open strings. “Johnny Marr had a little bit of chorus and a bit of echo and a bit of reverb but Robin Guthrie had an absolute grand canyon of reverb! And, talking to him, he is an absolute connoisseur of reverbs and stuff like that. “The Cocteau Twins were very otherworldly and were very influential on the Ride sound. [Record label] 4AD as a whole was a massive influence on us."

"Yeah, back to Raymond Pettibon again. This was one of my favourite images along with the Sonic Youth cover when I was 16. It's cool how he was doing all of the Black Flag artwork as well as Sonic Youth because I guess they have a similar feeling, similar aesthetic. He's also been doing the sleeves for another band called Cerebral Ballzy who supported The Horrors on tour last year. The other guys aren't really into hardcore. I always liked Minor Threat probably a touch more than Black Flag. That decision is probably swung by the fact that Minor Threat did that Wire ‘12 X U' cover which was great. I like Wire a lot."

"I think this counts as an illustrated sleeve. I mean Kraftwerk are up there with Bowie as being one of the coolest. I think when you look at Kraftwerk they are the perfect example of a band that always retain their mystique and really live by the whole world they've projected. Every record of theirs really draws you into it. On top of that, they're one of the world's best live bands. I've seen them maybe three times and their sound quality was unbelievable, they just sounded so good. I got really into running at one point and I'd always listen to Tour de France. I guess it was kind of made for that."

"People give him all kinds of shit but they’re just jealous. I also listened to this song on repeat on tour this year—every time I got to wi-fi—and drove my bandmates crazy, who hate this shit. I love how minimal it is, and it’s the best intro ever and then when the beat drops it stays minimal and aggressive and reserved, so good. I’m kind of a YouTube fiend for everything that’s going on in this world, and it’s been funny to watch all the covers of this song kind of mocking him but also unavoidably kind of flattering him despite themselves. Song is pretty undeniable. Oh, and the video rules too."

"There’s so much great stuff in the Song Poems catalogue, but Rod Keith is a favourite of mine. Everybody has their own favourite catalogue, but ‘Little Rug Bug', that song was great. All the songs with Rodd Keith doing the chamberlain thing with a pretend orchestra on a chamberlain are amazing. It’s a keyboard with string samples built into it. It’s like a Melotron. You kind of hear it on ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Flying’ on Magical Mystery Tour. It just has an unreal quality to it, with an orchestra that’s just on some fuckin' weird boogie-woogie drug. It’s like Harry Merry in a way. It just sounds like a malfunctioning pre-set."

"That title track, it really affected me emotionally. I can't really explain why, but it really got under my skin. We were going to a lot of parties and stuff, and that was always the track that was played, and everybody would get up and start dancing to it. I love most of the Bowie stuff, but '"Heroes"' and that whole era, I found it really moving. "Heroes" was a rebellion inspiration, an "I told you so"-type thing. It seemed to be very anti-establishment, and something your parents wouldn't approve of, so we loved it. I've never seen Bowie, though we did play a tour supporting him in South America."

"What else do I love? Well The Sound of Music is what, I think, made me wanna be an actor. I was so young when I saw it. I wanted to be one of the Von Trapp children. [laughs] It’s what started my love of music, singing; the whole thing. Any time it’s on I get this sort of “home” feeling. It’s one of those things, when it’s on, I feel guilty changing the channel. You get sucked in. And it holds up, too. When I went with my mom to Italy, we took a trip to Austria to go specifically on The Sound of Music tour, when I was 12 or something. [laughs] So that’s one."