Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

2. Venetian SnaresHuge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding

Now this one was illegally downloaded from Limewire [laughs]. Or it might have been Soulseek, actually. So I procured the album, somehow. I really loved it because it was so weird. I didn’t know about time signatures – and I still don’t, as many of my reviewers may say [laughs] – but it just struck a real chord with me at 15 or 16. I just kept on listening to it that year and from meeting the Wrong Music lot around that time from going to raves and house parties, I carried on listening to that kind of music, but I always felt Venetian Snares was a cut above the rest. It’s interesting as a lot of people don’t like Aaron [Funk, AKA Venetian Snares]. Well, a lot of people are scared of him. And I won’t have it that I’m scared of someone. Or that I’m impressed by them. I definitely told him off when I was about 16, back when I first met him. He always behaved in front of me after that. Because I used to tell people off if they were rude to people in my presence; I just couldn’t stand it. I told off Ceephax Acid Crew many times, to the point where he said, ‘I really like it when you tell me off,’ and I thought, well, I’m not doing that anymore then!’

But I mean I was pretty streetwise in general in my teens because I was always ready for a police raid, because of my dad and some of the dodgy businesses he was into. So I found it really weird to see all these middle class kids in that Wrong Music crowd who were scared of the police. I mean sometimes I’d just go up to the police and start an argument, just like ‘Fuck you!’ And then the mum side of me would kick in and say, ‘Well, just have a drink and get over it’. But I guess I did become a sort of mum-ish figure to certain people I was hanging out with at that time. I maybe still carry that on, but at least as the cool, fun mum, I hope. Not depressed alcoholic mum. A bit like Meredith in the US Office, a kind of slow car crash who is ultimately caring [laughs].

So anyway I became this kind of mum figure and I didn’t want that at all, mainly because I was 17. So I just wanted to to go to uni, do well and become a

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