"His Girl Friday is funny because it’s… In that way that I think In Bruges and JCVD are just perfect, it is perfect. It is beyond perfect. It is transcendently flawless for like the first 45 minutes, and then it kind of goes off into crazy town. But you still stay with it, and the tone completely changes and it gets really weird and dark, but I guess that’s what happens in some of those movies. But it’s the perfect distillation of that kind of fast-talking, thin-line-between-love-and-hate style relationship. It would definitely be the kind of movie that, if somebody was trying to get into movies from the ’30s and ’40s and wanted that kind of patter and that kind of style, I would definitely point them in that direction. The Women is my favorite film, but it’s kind of a lot to take in, and I would understand if it scared people off a little bit. Whereas if you watch the first 20 minutes of His Girl Friday, you’re in. It’s like a starter course for that kind of film."

"My first favorite film is The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. I am a huge horror film fan. I love them so much. I’ve always loved them. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been attracted to scary stuff; I don’t know why. When I was younger I would watch a lot of the cheesier process-of-elimination slasher ’90s films. And then I feel like, as my tastes matured a little bit as I got older, I found The Shining, which is a movie that my dad had always spoken about with this weird fear, because he’d never finished the movie. He’s like, “The one film I’ve never been able to finish in my life is The Shining.” So I grew up like, “What is The Shining?” And then, finally I watched it, and it was just incredible. Well, Stanley Kubrick’s my favorite director, so you’ll probably see a lot of his films in the top five. I just love that movie so much, and it’s my favorite on-screen performance of all time, from Jack Nicholson. I think that he’s absolutely incredible. I’m ready to play a role like that."

"I remember seeing Kurt Cobain wearing a Daniel Johnston t-shirt when I was young and it looking so weird that I wanted to know what it was, but I only really got into him in 2007 when Gallows were playing in Austin, Texas, where they've got the big mural to him at SXSW. I saw the record in the store next door and fell in love with it. It was very pure; there was nothing to it, just great, genius songwriting that's full of emotion. Then I watched the documentary, The Devil And Daniel Johnston, and became a fan for life. The man is fairly tortured, but always undeniably himself. I just love musicians who are themselves, there's so much to be said for that. 'Outsider Music' is a tough term because it implies he's not welcome here, but those types of characters are beacons, they're the people that other musicians to go out and do what they to do. It's musicians like Daniel Johnston that inspire the Kurt Cobains of the world, who then inspire a generation of people to pick up a guitar. I think it's insider music."

"Both of Atom TM's records on the Raster-Noton label are some of my favorite electronic records ever made. Liedgut was his first one for the label. It feels cinematic without being pandering. Inventive and beautiful. Being that it’s electronic, and just that it in its own particular style, it’s a lot more having to do with texture and sound design. But then there’s this weird kind of melodic framework that goes in and out throughout the record, that’s very “hypermelodic”. Very consonant. It almost sounds like… you know those snow-globes that have a twisting belt? Like a music box. It’s texturally focused sound design. And he’s able to go back and forth here in a way that’s really compelling. And again, you can tell it’s very intuitive - he’s just going where the music takes him. In a world of forward thinking electronic music, where anyone can pick up a computer and do this thing, his voice is so unique. I'd be able to pick him out of a thousand records – his own distinct voice. I really love his records, especially the ones he did for Raster-Noton."

"When I was young I became a huge Fellini fan and realised there was just one person doing the music for all his films. Casanova is one of the lesser known Fellini films I'd say. I hadn't seen it until my girlfriend and I watched it about five years ago. It blew me away because it's one of the spookiest; it's a very bizarre film, and the visual and musical landscape are both edgy and weird, as well as sexy. It's one of my favourites now. Nino Rota is perhaps my favourite composer now. I feel like something happened in the 60s with film scores where these classically trained composers were suddenly expanding their palettes to include synths, electric harpsichords and guitars. Nino Rota has really influenced me a lot, he chooses spooky notes and disturbing sounds, although I never knew about the Casanova score until 6 or 7 years ago. My girlfriend started watching the film with Donald Sutherland and we couldn't believe the soundtrack, it was so interesting and moody. It turned out to be my favourite Nino Rota score, even though I hadn't heard it until then."

"In high school, I worked at The Video Room in Oakland, California. It had the largest selection of laser discs in the Bay Area. One guy owned all of them. I was smugly aware that most people were watching movies entirely wrong, and would tell them so. I’d explain aspect ratios and assure my friends they’ve never even really seen Jaws until they’d seen it at my house on the Pioneer, hooked up to my dad’s concert amplifier and massive stadium speakers, my own rig. I watched more movies during that time than I did in film school. The Manchurian Candidate was one of them, and it was just [on a] different level. I went in thinking it would be a masterfully directed political conspiracy thriller, which it was, but was also completely bananas. I couldn’t believe some of the choices made. That film gave me permission to get a little bit weird in my storytelling. Once you’ve seen an old lady execute a Korean POW while Frank Sinatra looks on in complacency, you know you can go to crazytown and the audience will stay with you. It’s not easy, but it’s possible."

"Is this the ultimate in production? It’s probably one of them. I think you’ll find The Beatles might say that! They were always in competition at that point. You know, I’ve obviously spoken to The Beatles a lot but I like every track on Pet Sounds; I think they’re all equally as good. I couldn’t even pick one out if it because the arrangements were so unusual at the time. I remember it was ’66 and in some parts it sounds like an old dance band. I’d think, ""wow""! That’s so old fashioned yet so brand new at the same time. The arrangements were weird with these big harmonicas and funny, deep saxophones and plain little paper cups and playing the drums on them. What the hell was that? Brilliant! Brian [Wilson] was absolutely marvellous. Luckily for me, I did get to work with him and we wrote a song together called ‘Let It Shine’ on his album, Brian Wilson, in about ’89 or something. I got to know him quite well and he was a lovely guy and we wrote this tune and it was very nice and I’m really glad that I did."

"Was it their first album? I don't even know. This and Court And Spark were both records that my parents played when I was young, and I hated. But they didn't play either album that much. My parents are really great but they didn't play them obsessively; they would play favourite songs or pick selections. I listened to this properly when I was maybe 21. It was exciting and dramatic and glamorous. There were these moments, like oboe solos and stuff, that were almost hippy-ish, but they worked so well within the music. I don't know if 'hippy-ish' is the word but I was really into this idea of the instruments going wild and going crazy. An oboe: so cool and weird and a unique combination of timbres. Then, of course, there's the romantic quality of Bryan Ferry's voice, which is why I also love his solo music. And the later Roxy Music, I love also, which everyone thinks is bad but - no, they don't! A lot of people love it. It surprises me that he wrote all the songs on this album. I never knew that."