"Natalie Portman plays a young teenage pop artist, Celeste, who starts making music after surviving a school shooting. Then it becomes a film about what the pop industry can do to people, what not to do within it, and about messiah complexes. It’s a really over-the-top, sinister film – it becomes almost alien. But it also reminds you to keep your ego in check, pull your baseball cap down, don’t get lost in the madness, and just keep working."

"A group of teenagers, led by Cliff Richard, rally together to stop a theatre being demolished. They succeed by putting on a show there. The Young Ones is a gorgeous fantasy, so optimistic and beautiful, about the potential of pop music for young people. It made me want to join a youth theatre, which I did a few years later, and it introduced the six-year-old me to the thrill of both pop music and theatre. They’re still thrilling me today."

"I'm starting to write my second record and am becoming really inspired by French pop music. This is currently my favorite Serge Gainsbourg song, but I kind of change my mind every minute about that."

"Great documentaries happen when the filmmaker is lucky enough to be there at the rare moment in time when things are changing. Monterey Pop captures the music but also that innocent moment in the sixties."