Love – Da Capo
This might be seen as quite an obvious choice but, for me, this album was a gateway drug. When I was a kid, I remember my older brother and his mates getting really into Forever Changes and thinking, "This is just incredible." From that point onwards, I just wanted to hear more and more of that kind of music. We were all skateboarders in Cardiff back then. People always think of skateboarders being into proper hardcore music. My brother and his mates were into Love and The Doors… some were even into proper sunshine psych. We weren't team sports kind of people – we were the last people picked for football or rugby; a weird sort of outsider gang. Da Capo was a big milestone for me growing up as part of that gang. I loved the fact that Arthur Lee was very West Coast – a smart guy and definitely not a hippy; a freak-flag flier. There was something punk about their attitude. I love the story about him moving into a new neighbourhood in LA, somewhere properly rough. His whole thing was like, "Right. I'm going to let people know I'm here and that I'm the fucking toughest guy in the neighbourhood." He was a hardcore dude. They knew how to make proper aggro psych.