The Books – The Lemon Of Pink

When I think about records that helped shape my music, weirdly, I have to say that The Lemon of Pink by The Books was an early influence. It’s essentially a collage of recorded sounds that they pushed together to make a record, forgoing typical song structures. They take pieces of spoken word or sometimes one of them talks and layer those recordings on top of a piece of music so it’s pretty strange, but it’s also really beautiful.

I heard this record when I was maybe 18 or 19 and thought, ‘What is this music?!’ I loved it instantly! It was a defining thing for me because I didn’t play guitar. I had taken piano lessons as a kid but wasn’t proficient on any instrument and I hadn’t written a song. So, when I heard this I thought, ‘If this is music, I can do that and I wanna make music like this.’ I got an interface and a microphone and started recording stuff , cutting it up and looping it together.

It was a really formative record because it was an entry into music for me. It felt possible for me to make music. My first record The Line became more musical over time, but a lot of the first songs I recorded were recordings of household sounds and musical vignettes that I pushed together.