"I was a young, precocious seventeen-year-old and this was what I listened to all the time on my Walkman. I had grown up with it. There were deep musicians around us all the time, painters and people into jazz, so I knew I had a feeling for it. The flat was a hub of bohemian appreciation. I learnt that John Coltrane was better than everyone else because he was melodic. Some of the atonal ones, that was all a bit too much. That’s what was played here all the time. I moved out of home when I was 16 and we had a house in Shepherd’s Bush. A shithole, one of the rooms was the dustbin, and that was what I listened to, to the absolute horror of everyone else there, smoking their shit spliffs."

"As an artist, Nina Simone has inspired me so much. I think she was my introduction to artistry. Especially coming from a woman, it really changed the way I viewed music and gave me an incentive to learn piano. I was probably about nine or 10 when I first heard her music – it was my Dad that played me a live rendition of a song that she’d done two days after Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. It was called “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)”. I remember waiting for my Mum outside work, he used to play that song. As soon as I heard her voice I was just hooked on it. ""'I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl' is one of my favourite songs of hers to sing. I have been thinking about [covering it]! It has so much room in it melodically to freestyle, maybe improvising some of the lyrics to make it more relevant to my life. I’d probably do it just on piano instead of with the full band. There’s times when I’ve seen Nina combine classical music with jazz, so I’d probably attempt some of that. It’s such an open song – I think that’s what I love about it. I just love the space in in it. Even the title’s quite metaphoric: sexy, but quite poetic at the same time. ""Nina Simone showed me that there are really no rules with music. The more you learn in any direction, it can only empower what you’re doing. Reading about her history, at first her dream was to be a classical pianist! It’s so effortless – she’s not even looking at the keys, she’s not even thinking! And then she’s singing a pop song on top of a classical jazz fusion! She definitely inspired me to become accomplished where I can, just to add more freedom to express myself more deeply."

"When I was about ten, I was given The Compact King Crimson on cassette tape and that’s what led me to “21st Century Schizoid Man.” This song is from In the Court of the Crimson King, which has the screaming face on the cover, and the face is inspired by the Arthur Janov book The Primal Scream. Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis. “My Dad told me that at the time of the book and album there was a real fad for going out into nature and screaming guttural sounds. It became this zeitgeist self-help technique and I believe that’s what influenced the book, but essentially, it’s a guy having an existential meltdown and the song taps into that. “I think because I was young when I heard it, I didn’t appreciate this more complex meaning, and at the time I just appreciated the sheer aggression of the music. It was also the first time I’d ever heard those complicated time signatures and polyrhythms, as well as the combination of distorted guitar and saxophone. ""I hadn’t grown up on jazz, so I sort of thought it was for nerds, but when I heard this and heard the sax on the time signatures I was like ‘This is like jazz rock’. In the Court of the Crimson King is hailed by lots of people - like Shellac - as the first Math Rock or Post Rock record. They also invented heavy metal if you think about it, because they were doing riffs before Black Sabbath. “Our first album, Making Dens, is heavily indebted to King Crimson. We very much wore our influences on our sleeve in the beginning, and we had this approach of throwing everything including the kitchen sink at our songwriting. Whenever I listen to Making Dens, I hear the chaos of a band trying to sound like King Crimson. They’ve been a big influence for Mystery Jets."

"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."