"When I discovered them, we went to Australia shortly after and I said 'can we get these guys to open for us?' I was quickly told, 'no, they're way bigger than you in Australia. Don't be silly'. We haven't played together. I got to see them once at the Cake Shop in New York. I don't know what it is but this record kind of reminds me of the sort of rawest parts of AC/DC or the most loose parts of Pink Flag. The singer is pretty unhinged. When I saw them play, it was a thing where you could see the singer looking at Mikey, the main guy and guitar player who I think writes all the music. The singer was watching him to find out when he was meant to sing because he didn't really have that straight. It was kind of a thing where Mikey would nod and the singer would start singing. Sort of a go and stop kind of thing. I don't think anyone particular obsessed over the form and lyrics of these songs. Maybe they did but it doesn't sound like they did and there's something great about that. I think they recorded this record in a day. And it's got that vibe. It's loose and it's powerful and punk rock and totally real. "

"From the 90s onwards French music started to become very interesting. There have been quite a few French artists, especially in the dance-pop arena, who have found their metier when a lot of earlier French music just didn't translate. We lived in Belgium for quite a long time and one of the things I was completely aware of was the fact that as a British person I knew nothing about French music. And that's one good thing that's happened in music over the last twenty years: the increased internationalisation of music. Yes, Sebastian Tellier has to sing in English, but it doesn't necessarily matter as you don't understand what he's singing about anyway. He kind of does it by stealth. People told me about Sebastian Tellier and I was like, "yeah, it sounds quite interesting." And then you hear it, and you hear it again, and eventually you're like "my god, this is brilliant!" It's a combination of music and voice, it's groovy and funky; it's just incredibly listenable and a little bit bonkers. Again this is one of those records that we've listened to a lot. You can just put it on and it's just there, and sometimes it's just so beautiful, what he does. I'm not afraid of things that are just beautiful."

"I’m cautious of musical dynasties. It seems to treat musical ability as some kind of spiritual magic, passed from soul to soul. I don’t get “Only Giles Martin can mix the Beatles because only he has the aura”. Nevertheless, everyone in the Haden family has such a gentle, intelligent, soulful talent that I find it hard to pull out a favourite. Father Charlie Haden is a beautiful, sensitive bass player who has played alongside Ornette Colman, Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny. He created political, instrumental, jazz with Carla Bley and Don Cherry in the Liberation Music Orchestra. His parents were also singers and performed on the radio as The Haden Family. His son Josh is a bass player and singer with the band Spain and writes the tensest, poised, songs of heartbreak. Petra, Tanya and Rachel are Josh’s sisters and Charlie’s daughters, and although they have been singing for years, it took until 2014 to record their debut album of country songs. Previously Petra and Rachel had been That Dog and Petra had made an acapella version of ‘The Who Sell Out’. They have that synchronicity and intonation that only siblings can have. The three voices move as one. It’s the most straightforward, emotional music. There is no re-inventing of the wheel. It’s just music that lifts the spirits."

"Rick Rubin embraced Johnny Cash when he was floundering without a label. Rick thought this was unthinkable. He started soliciting writers beyond the country community and they did two great, odd, dark records. I wound up writing a song called 'I Witnessed A Crime' without knowing that Rick was going in this more contemporary vein. I later discovered it was too mid-’50s; too perfect for old-school Johnny Cash. So it didn't reach release until it was bootlegged out of the studio and found its way to YouTube. 

Rick called me up – I live just walking distance from house-to-house: ""Can you come over?"" I said, ""Well, you still got that old Fender guitar down there? If you let me play it I'll come on down."" He had this stunning Fender Esquire from 1954. I walked down and the door opened up, he ushered me into the living room and sitting on the sofa was Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. I was dumbfounded. So we sat down this close and he said, ""I like that song."" June started welling up and said, ""Ooh, you played the solo just like Luther Perkins."" I said, “Well, I'd like you to help me get through it.” We wound up singing it across the table. Little did I know that Rick had hidden microphones, capturing the whole thing."

"This is a record my mum loved so it was played in our house all the time when I was growing up. Harvest was a huge commercial success for Neil Young but the songwriting is also unbelievable. It's as good as any album that Bob Dylan ever put out or anything The Beatles did. To me it's one of those iconic records that will always stand the test of time - it's as good as it can get. There's not really one bad song on the record, it's almost so stripped down and gradual sounding at spots. There's nothing in the way - the production is spot on. Neil's singing is so beautiful and fragile at the same time. I really think it’s a perfect album. I recently saw a BBC session, I can't remember where, but Neil Young was playing at the Round House and there's this amazing performance. He's playing a lot of songs from ‘Harvest’ before it came out and he's just so comfortable - it's just him and either a piano or an acoustic guitar, and it's so unbelievable. When you can tap into songs that simple, without the need of any production or band or anything, you realise how good the songwriter is. That's why the record sounds so good - because the songs are flawless."

"I still listen to ‘If You Want Me To Stay’ with great pleasure, it never diminishes. I first heard it when it came out, or close to it; I think I was 9 years old or roughly there. Somebody had the single of it in the neighborhood where I was living, which was Connecticut at the time. I liked it, but then over the years whenever I would hear it I kept liking it more and more and more. “It was the overall thing, I think it’s his phrasing, it's so wild and so groovy - I’m trying not to say the word 'funky', but it is! It's his vocal delivery and how he’s singing, Sly Stone had these little jumps or big jumps going way up high or dropping way down low. It’s kind of crazy, but it’s all making sense. And that bass line is such a hook, it’s the whole way through. The whole tune starts off with that bass playing a beautiful, very melodic and funky groovy line. “I love this song. It was probably my first time hearing music like that, and to me it’s still one of the greatest tracks, the bass line on it, just the way he sings it and the song itself. It’s still one that I’ll put on sometimes late at night. I love everything about it"

"I think the production on this - who did she work with? But she used things like forks and - oh yes, it was Matthew Herbert! - and so when I first heard it I thought it was a bit mental, but it's really not mental once I had lived with it for a bit. A lot of it's really poppy and the last song is a ballad that's just heartbreaking. Talk about the radio not playing things, how could they not play this? Her style of singing really influenced mine on a track I did called 'Jealousy', and I'm basically trying to sing like her. When I listened back to the demo, I'd done a pretty good impression of Róisín Murphy! It's just her delivery, and she's really brave and I think that record was exactly the record I needed to hear. It wasn't necessarily what the record company wanted, and that's why I love it. It came out, and I don't know where it charted, but I would hear bits of it on TV over the next three years. And then five years after it came out, So You Think You Can Dance did a massive thing to it. And it warms my heart that music that is genuinely great does get to have a life beyond the chart and starts getting into the ether."