6. Mount EerieDawn

I’m a big fan of The Microphones and Phil Elverum and all of his projects. That was also influential on me as a musician because it showed me a path of DIY that you could follow. As someone who didn’t have parents in the arts or a real entry point to that, it felt feasible for me to just play small shows, do everything myself, make these intimate pieces of packaging, and mail out letters to fans. I mean, his ethos in everything that he does and the photos that he takes for the record and the lettering that he does, and just how vulnerable and intimate he is with his work. 

Particularly with Dawn – I have a huge Dawn tattoo on my arm, which is from one of the comics that he drew in there. It was about his time, I believe, when he was living in Norway in an isolated cabin, and he kept a journal of his time there and wrote songs. It’s just a really intimate homespun project that’s always been the way that I’ve wanted to approach art: welcoming people into your life and self-mythologising. I’ve also always had a romantic feeling about holing up away somewhere unique or doing some kind of retreat like that, I think, largely because of him. So that album has always been super meaningful to me.