"This is almost Devendra's Exile On Main Street. There's gospel singers on the song 'Saved', there's a song called 'Shabop Shalom' which is a satirical bar mitzvah song that he performs like Elvis. It has an epic jaw-dropping song called 'Seahorse' which alternates between psychedelic parts and jazz parts, a fuzzy roving ballad called 'So Long, Old Bean'. There's so much on it and I love that. Devendra was my neighbour in Brooklyn many years ago, and it was cool watching him become a superhero version of himself. He had that kind of bravery before almost anyone I knew, to embody their personal expression in this world. Devendra is a next-level master at combining musical, visual, and poetic aesthetics. For me he is a personal hero, his work is a benchmark of how much of your brain you can get out there it. We were born a few days apart, so we are really connected as peers."

"This was from college and Charles had it, and obviously I knew those songs. Jimmy Page and [John] Bonham and John Paul Jones did the arrangements to this song, 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'. Fucking hell man! That's epic! Also, I like the sensibility of basically saying "fuck you", well, not fuck you, but it was the freedom of the 70s - I know 'I Love My Shirt' isn't on that album but I just love that, it was like, "Wow, what kind of freedom can you get talking about your favourite goddamn shirt!" And washing it in the stream! And he'll say, "Know what I mean?" [laughs] There's a song there, 'Sunshine Superman', and I played it for Charles and he went, "Shit!" It's so strange. It took me a while, it's got - [imitates guitar] - it's got all these weird sonic spots, it's more sonic really than the melody, because the melody there, what is that?"

"I think a lot about Martin Scorsese and how heavily influenced Paul Thomas Anderson was by him. I feel like he learned so much from Scorsese in Boogie Nights, and so I feel like picking Boogie Nights is somewhat accounting for my Martin Scorsese love. But I’m also being very honest about a movie that I can watch over and over. Just the epic nature and the grandness of it, and some of the shots and the style of it, and the music — my God, the way he uses music — and that great shot where somebody jumps into the pool and you hear the muffled soundtrack. It’s brilliant. I never get sick of watching it. And the acting is just some of my favorite actors at the top of their game. I love doing impressions and one of my earliest impressions of an actor was Philip Seymour Hoffman in that movie, when he’s saying how much he loves the name and he’s chewing on the pen."

"The Godfather. That’s two. One and two. Oh, it’s just epic, you know. It’s the best soap opera. It’s all those — you know, it’s the human drama and it’s exciting. And if it was done badly it’s like a soap opera in the afternoon, and you just realize that there are only so many stories that can be told, but when they’re told in the right way they’re beautiful and effective. So much of it is good, you know: The acting is good, the directing is subtle, withheld — so much of it in wide shots, with very few close ups. It takes balls to do that. I mean, it’s a different world now; close ups are the way people tell stories now. I don’t mind close-ups, I like them, but they’re kind of forceful — you see a lot, you get a lot of information in a close-up. There’s less mystery."

"I saw it at BAM in Brooklyn when they were doing a Schlöndorff retrospective, and I didn’t previously know much of his work but then got super obsessed with him. What’s cool about him is that his films are all totally different. The Tin Drum is a crazy epic story told through the perspective of this young boy, and the voice-over is incredible and takes you through his experience. A lot of people think the voice-over in We the Animals is a reference to Malick, but we’re actually referencing The Tin Drum. What I love about this movie and Ratcatcher is that they show an understanding of childhood sexuality, which you only really see in European films. The other thing that’s really important about The Tin Drum is the color palette. It has this incredibly vibrant, almost Technicolor palette. I showed the film to my DP and everybody that we worked with."