John Grant - Queen Of Denmark
"I wanted to change the world, but I could not even change my underwear, and when the shit got really really out of hand I had it all the way up to my hairline..." How Queen Of Denmark is quite so funny, so odd, so humanly open and self-deprecating is a total mystery to me. John Grant is one of the best writers about relationships, whether they're romantic, social or familial they're all brilliantly illustrated and totally honest. And his voice has a low rich baritone that I love. I've met the man himself a couple of times and seen him live a bunch, and he's always fantastic. I was really lucky to see him play with Midlake at SXSW in 2012. It was in a church, but we'd snuck in some red wine. We sat in the aisle at the front, and we acted like tiny teenage girls: "We love you John!" He was really scared of us. He also made a video in Cardiff with Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris, who made the video for my song 'How Not To Be Surprised When You're A Ghost', which is pretty cool.