"It just makes you wanna slap some cunt, doesn’t it? I’m having them over The Clash - they were a proper punk band for me. I don’t think too much about it but it’s in us all, that record."

"Daft Punk’s Homework was really big for me growing up. I know Daft Punk is this big huge thing…It’s like Daft Punk and Coachella are almost on the same level. Daft Punk to me started just so pure, and there still is a purity. You can see that they are like, “What’s going to get everyone excited?” versus what’s just going ot make them excited. That Homework record is just so raw, they were 16 when they made it and I heard a rumor that their dad mixed it in their basement. It’s just a super cool record and there was nothing like that when that came out, that was huge for me. I bought that at Walmart when I was just a little kid. I remember that I just couldn’t believe it, that “Around the World” bass line was just blowing my mind."

"I think Hanin [Elias] from the band was a Bikini Kill fan so she sent it to me. They mixed punk rock with electronic music and it was the first time I'd heard that done. So definitely that inspired Le Tigre, and I was listening to it while I was making the solo Julie Ruin record, in 1997. It inspired me to get into electronic music because I was like, "Oh, if I want to do something different and if my band's not practising, I can make electronic music." They gave me the idea to learn how to programme a drum machine and use a sampler. It's just really like the world is opening up for you. Their music had a huge effect on the direction my career was going in, that I could mix electronic music with punk rock, that electronic music could be punk."

"After Patti, I sold all my record collection because I felt I couldn't have any music around me that didn't do something to me like Horses did. For about six months, I had no other records, except Lou Reed's Berlin as I felt that was comparably powerful and emotive. After those six months, punk started. I thought punk was fun and it reached the anger in me that needed to come out. I had been sent away to school; being sent to a boarding school was like being sent away to prison by parents who apparently loved you. So, I had a lot of anger and distress at this strange turn of events and I started going to punk gigs. The first gig I organised to see was the White Riot tour with The Jam, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect and The Slits. It turned into a bit of a riot and we were these schoolboys in our uniforms with one teacher to chaperone us, and suddenly chairs and tables were flying through the air. After that, I was banned from organising any more trips to punk gigs. So, even though I was banned, I decided to get the school magazine to employ me as a journalist. I would try to interview the first local punk band that came down to Shrewsbury. That happened to be Wire, who were a fascinating band. I think Pink Flag is one of the only punk albums that has stood the test of time. It is a remarkable piece of music. There are songs that last 45 seconds and others that last two or three minutes. It is quite a feat to pull off a 45-second song and make it work. Wire were wonderful to interview – intelligent and articulate – and their music was brutal and yet humorous at the same time, which was a very odd thing for punk. To call an album Pink Flag, after the label that the Nazis put on gay people in the camps, was an incredibly brave thing to do in such homophobic times. Punk, although liberating in many aspects, was pretty homophobic until Tom Robinson came along and confronted it directly. Pink Flag was a miracle of creativity in these short, harsh little songs. Even to this day, when I listen to it, I think it is a masterpiece. I think it would have influenced a band like Pixies. I don't know if Pixies ever heard Wire, but I would be very surprised if they hadn't."