"As a very young kid, A Hard Days Night [editor’s note: by the Beatles, in case you’re an idiot] was a big deal. Probably, and when you say “my own money,” keep in mind I grew up very poor, so I didn’t have a lot of my own money; but I probably bought, like, Boston’s first album or the Beach Boys Endless Summer. And after that, when CDs came around, I would just buy The Best of Steely Dan, The Best of BTO, The Best of Deep Purple and I’d really just buy “the best” because a CD was like 13, 14 bucks and I was making six bucks an hour – you do the math."

"As a very young kid, A Hard Days Night [editor’s note: by the Beatles, in case you’re an idiot] was a big deal. Probably, and when you say “my own money,” keep in mind I grew up very poor, so I didn’t have a lot of my own money; but I probably bought, like, Boston’s first album or the Beach Boys Endless Summer. And after that, when CDs came around, I would just buy The Best of Steely Dan, The Best of BTO, The Best of Deep Purple and I’d really just buy “the best” because a CD was like 13, 14 bucks and I was making six bucks an hour – you do the math."

"See I’m a Pisces so I get down with love songs. I’m totally into slow jams and old-school R&B, all that. As far as R. Kelly and Usher, all that shit is really cool, but this Best of Keith Sweat is the most flawless album. You can throw it on and every song is legit. The beats are dope. People have sampled a lot of his shit. I just think it’s probably the best album to put on and freaking make love to your woman. ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ is the track for sure. That is such a heavy bass. Celly Cel from the Bay sampled it, ‘It’s Goin Down.’ That one is legit"

"Okay the next one, and it’s a big one, is The Goonies. I think it’s almost self-explanatory. I remember seeing The Goonies as a kid and I think it’s that sense of — it is almost like a Scooby-Doo-esque adventure become real, and I think that’s what made it so appealing to me as a kid. It wasn’t that it was raucous and loud, it was that these kids were incredibly relatable. They were real kids. They came in all shapes and sizes, they were incredibly flawed, and very funny. They were rude, they bickered; they just felt so real, and they were a lot of fun because of that. So yeah, The Goonies — huge influence."

"I have an older sister and she was into things like Bros, New Kids On The Block and Kylie Minogue, and I think she ended up buying a few Cardigans records. We used to listen to them a lot. I remember being aware that the drums sounded really different to other bands. The production was incredibly good, it was catchy pop music. One of the guys involved, Peter Svensson went on to become Hollywood and write for Ariana Grande. I think it was probably the first of a few times when I realised that you didn’t have to be into production or catchy songs, you can be into both. All of their records are very good, I think."

"Color me gone, baby. I wouldn’t have seen this movie at twelve. I wouldn’t have understood anyone who didn’t have a mission, a point. But at nineteen, my face was gravel from “points.” I was ready for a whole lot of steel nothing, an empty road at high speeds, an existential needle guiding my arms. I knew little or nothing about automobiles, but I fell in love with this road trip, and made a couple myself, LA to Detroit, Tijuana to Spokane, no sleep, all little white pills and mud coffee. I never saw anyone as beautiful as James Taylor and Dennis Wilson passing me on the left, but I was ready to follow."

"I love The Departed. I was only talking about it the other day, in fact. I think it’s Scorsese at his best, in my opinion. I definitely love gangster films generally, like from Casino to the Godfathers. But I think The Departed, being in the modern day and being relatable — I think the cast is just amazing — but there’s something about being in the now that kind of made it a lot more… obviously relevant, but I suppose I connected with it in a much grander scale than I did with the likes of GoodFellas. I love all those films, but I think The Departed sort of resonated more than any of them."