"When I heard Elizabeth Fraser for the first time, first of all I was so excited that they were based in Scotland and hearing her sing felt like I was in touch with alien life [laughs]. I heard it and I didn't even understand what she was saying but I could feel what she's saying. It was so emotive and so extraordinary. I felt like every time I listened – and I still have the same reaction – when I listen to these records I feel like I'm literally being transported in angel wings. I find it euphoric to listen to and nobody's ever sounded like her before. She's totally unique and just this extraordinary talent. 
 Funnily enough, I once met her at a Nick Cave concert in Edinburgh. She was there and I was just so in awe of this incredible woman – I also loved that she was so shy and so unassuming. She wasn't really a front person, more of an instrument using her voice. 
 I'm not a religious person, but I always think it's like music from the Gods. It's not of this world. I want them played at my funeral. I always say that to my husband: 'Play the Cocteau Twins all the way through my funeral, that's all I want' [laughs]."

"This is a bit of a sidestep, but in 1987 I went to the States on a Camp America. Me and my mate applied and we got in and he went to work in this really posh Jewish camp in Massachusetts somewhere, with all these lovely kids. I was working with these underprivileged kids from The Bronx, in Carmel in upstate New York. These kids were rough. I was 18 and they were like 12 and some of them were bigger than me. I shared a cabin with a guy called Daryl who was from New York. He just played the Run–D.M.C. album all day. Bigger And Deffer was out then too, the LL Cool J album. I just loved it. That was when I got into hip-hop. I wasn't sold on the music. I always thought it was a bit lumpy, before Public Enemy came out. It was missing a groove really. But 'It's Tricky' is really uptempo. It's really aggressive, which I liked. It's got that 'My Sharona' riff and that's not going to send you wrong is it? It sounded great in the house. It sounded so alien. My mum and dad didn't want to know and when you're that age you want to be freaking out the straights."