8. Scott WalkerTilt
He was part of my childhood with The Walker Brothers and I knew them as a pop band. Somebody must have played Tilt on the radio and my jaw dropped – hearing these slabs of music. It’s funny as he’s the only musician I think of in terms of slabs; huge, deep, icebergs of music. I used to hate his voice, [does impersonation of Walker’s wail/croon], I loathed it – too operatic, but I like opera, give me Wagner any day – but it changed. Tilt, The Drift, Bish Bosch, I love all of it. When I heard Tilt I was starting an album for Daniel Miller at Mute and it was a big influence but not an influence, so inspiring. I was interested in recording by then, making strange noises, it all connects up, and then for me, the ambiguity of the lyrics, which of course he would fight over every syllable and every word but to me I loved the fact that I couldn’t understand what the fuck he was talking about. I love being perplexed by music, but not all music – stick me in front of some Stockhausen and I hate it. I love the beauty of Tilt – strings by Bamber Gascoigne’s son, Brian. I was introduced to him at the same time as George Martin and there I was thinking ‘I’m at a do, in an embassy, in Belgravia, I don’t even know why I’m here’. I told him I loved the arrangements on Tilt and he took it very well. I ended up recording on the embassy piano – it looked lovely. If you don’t ask you don’t get, it took me many years to realise that.
