"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."

"When I was drawing up the list, I wanted to start with an album that had come out in the last few years. I had a long list, maybe 50 albums, and there were some recent albums and tracks I’ve liked in the last few months. But, when I’m saying these are my favourite 13 albums that matter the most, I realised there wasn’t anything much from the last 15 to 20 years, which is a little sad to me. There are albums that I love - don’t get me wrong. I nearly included a Daft Punk album, as they changed things a little and I played that a lot when it came out. I thought The Killers’ debut album was a good record."

"The amazing thing about this song is that I heard this album after I had seen and heard Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers play it live at Max’s Kansas City, and it was basically the same group doing the same songs. “I think it was 1977 or 1978. I was 15 and I went for an Easter break vacation from high school, it was my first trip by myself; I had an older brother living in New York City and my family was living at Wisconsin at that time. I went and stayed with him and he was into all the punk stuff that was going on. He looked to see what was playing he said ‘Johnny Thunders is great and he’s playing at Max’s Kansas City.’ “It was the most exciting experience I ever had with rock and roll. I think it’s because the music appealed to me, I’d never heard it before, I never heard any recording or anything about this Johnny Thunders, any of the songs or anything. I think it’s also because of the age I was, because being fifteen everything was this great discovery in the world of music for me at that time, particularly with all things of rock and roll. “Punk music was this thing that just hit me; it hit me in a perfect place, and of course there’s a great variety. That live show is riveting and inspiring in every way. With the music, the sound, guitar and then the attitude, the swagger and the craziness of it. Everything was appealing to me. I felt that this is what I wanted to do, and this confirmed it."