PERSONAL STEREO
Name an album that's an unrecognised classic?

The Real Kids LP. If you don't know them, their name alone should tell you that you've been missing something.

Which artist or record first made you want to make music?

The Velvet Underground. They have all the qualities I still look for: simple, primitive, melodic, powerful. They made it seem so easy yet still so many bands get it badly wrong.

What song makes you cry?

My tear ducts have been blocked since childhood but if any record was likely to reverse a medical certainty then it would be Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. I heard someone told him they had enjoyed this record and he replied, "How could anyone enjoy that much pain?"

Name a gig that changed your life?

The Pastels on the Renfrew Ferry supporting Teenage Fanclub. At that time I felt lost and that I had been caught up in all the foolishness that surrounds being in a band. The Pastels played and it was so apparent that they had found their own way of working outside of all that. Sometimes music can be like a beacon or signal saying, "This way, this way".

Who would be on your dream TOTP?

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers either playing Hospital or Girlfren. At the age of nineteen years old Jonathan Richman was writing " I go to bakeries all day long, there's a lack of sweetness in my life" and "these streets, we all know, they help us cry when we're alone late at night". The band sounded really powerful then but there's no footage of them playing live. It's strange to think that at this time they actually played gigs and that people got to see them.

What do you play when you're getting ready to go out?

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Soundtrack by Bob Dylan. It's the sound of someone about to fulfil their destiny, preparations being made. We play this before we play a gig, it leaves you ready to face anything.

What do you play as an aid to seduction?

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Soundtrack by Bob Dylan. It's the sound ...

What do you sing in the shower?

Mainly just lines from songs. At the moment it's "They're taking it out on us!" from a Belle and Sebastian song and "Soil everywhere!" from an Appendix Out song.