4. Talking HeadsRemain In Light
Simon Granger was a huge Talking Heads fan. Once I started hanging out with him in this odd child / man relationship that we had, I was in third or fourth year and he was six or seven years older than me. I would go round his flat and listen to music. I’d fuck with him all the time, he’d go to bathroom and I’d start yelling and bouncing around, pretending I was being kidnapped, leave the door open and hide in a cupboard. He’d be looking around, going ‘fucking hell!’ and I’d leap out. Obviously I was a puerile, idiot teenager and he was this sensitive, very reserved man. Eno and Talking Heads were the meeting of his two great influences on me. I wanted to choose Before And After Science, which feels like a precursor to Remain In Light. I loved it lyrically, and that it was this mad A-side of frenetic, syncopated repetition and linear-ness, which was what I felt we were trying to do with Nitzer Ebb, and then the B-side just these laconic but also sombre slow songs, but still with some kind of syncopation and rhythmic element to it.
