Neil Young – After The Goldrush
A lot of these records come from around the same time, but it is true I think that almost everybody finds the seeds of their aesthetic firmly planted in their teen years, and it's no different for me. The way Neil Young has conducted his career, and his singular vision, I admire probably more than anybody out there, and this was the first album I connected with. I learnt most of the songs on there at some point and played them at parties and folk clubs. It has a sense of time and place. Although he's Canadian of course, it sounds like an Americanness that was to do with the natural world. I imagined wide-open spaces. There are really interesting lyrics as well on that record.

There are some tremendous piano songs on After The Goldrush, so was Neil Young a factor in your piano playing too?

I would say so. I learnt about the way both Neil Young and Carole King would have suspensions on chords, 'passing chords' or whatever, that I carry with me still. If you play an A major and put a G over it, it creates a beautiful tension that still does it for me. Those people were definitely employing those kinds of devices.