"I’m a huge fan of U2. I saw them six times last summer. My boyfriend’s like ‘We get it, they’re almost 60, relax.’ The band gives an oral history of their entire career like they’ve never done before. I’m always intrigued by books in which people retrace their steps — this thing didn’t work out and this thing didn’t work out, then this thing sorta did, then we lost our momentum… but it really was cool to see their creative process from before they started as a band in high school. Hopefully I can do even one tenth of the things they do to inspire people. It’s long, so you’ll have to buckle up for a bit. But it’s definitely worth it."

"I want the fortunate readers to know that contemporary sounds are not restricted to lighthearted pop. There's as much heaviness available as well. The celebration of punk might be bad in the grand scheme of things but what I'm saying is, you wouldn't catch me digging into my parents’ record collection. You wouldn't want to dare go there. 

The fact that I treasure my friendship, for instance, with Depeche Mode really catches people off guard. But under thorough analysis, Depeche Mode was super-heavy, particularly live. That bottom end, that can only be found through synthesisers. It's earth-shaking. At one point back in the States Depeche Mode was wrongfully tagged and people said, ""Oh, you like that disco-sounding stuff?"" Well it wasn't. It was heavy."

"Repo Man was one of the most important formative films of my teenage years. Later, when I moved to LA for a summer, I couldn’t stop thinking that I was actually living it out, because the city is such an extraordinarily strange place full of people who seem like their brains are being microwaved by the sun. Repo Man is a great movie about blue-collar weirdos in a wasteland of people living off defaulted loans, forming their identities through various “codes,” and searching for a sense of community in male fraternity, punk rock, religion, work, government, conspiracy theories, and/or outer space. And as time passes, the more jetting off the planet in a radioactive Chevy Malibu seems like a good idea."

"King Kong was a musical from South Africa that had an all-black cast. It was a fusion of South African traditional music, soul and jazz. It was so powerful when I listened to it for all those nights. I fell in love with that musical, which was a very big part of my life. I think [I was drawn to] the authenticity of the voice of what people call world music or ethnic music coming from the earth, of the people, the hope and their struggle. South Africans are so strong with their emotions and I think Africa itself is an amazing, inspirational place for music, because they live and breathe it. It was for me, a connection with the soul."