1. The Modern LoversThe Modern Lovers

I think this has been a touchstone for a long time. It’s a real classic art-rock album. It’s art-rock which is what I do! It’s a brilliant proto-punk art-rock album and I’ve always loved it. Any time I go back to listen to it, it embodies a lot of the things that I like about rock & roll music.

My understanding is that after the album came out it was – in the States at least – considered to be fairly depressing and Jonathan Richman found that quite disturbing. I mean he mentions "hospital" on there a couple of times and he did touch on those kind of areas which is why I think he ended up doing stuff like ‘I’m A Little Airplane’ and ‘Ice Cream Man’. That may be completely false but that’s what I was told. He certainly changed after that album and became a lot more lightweight in his approach to things and a lot more comedic, I suppose.

But this album, for me, is a real embodiment of something. It’s very heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground and it’s got a lot of the aspects of rock music that I enjoy. It’s definitely had a direct impact on my music. When I play upbeat stuff this gets channeled into it from time to time; it’s inevitable. You channel things that you personally enjoy listening to and re-cycle them, if you like. I’m sure that happens inadvertently but I don’t think about it, really.