Influences and (current) favourite artists: David Bowie; Rufus Wainwright; Ben Christophers; Arcade Fire; Sigur Ros; Iggy Pop; Jacques Brel; The Doors; Beck; Ennio Morricone; Dizzy Q Viper/Queen Adreena; Radiohead; Marc Bolan/T Rex; Helen Kane; Elvis Presley; Lou Reed; The Beatles; Howlin’ Wolf; The Rolling Stones; Bob Dylan; John Lee Hooker; The Cult; Sisters of Mercy; Jeff Buckley; Tom Waits; Marilyn Manson; David Bowie (first and last and always) Current favourite album: T. Rex: Electric Warrior This is an amazing album. A lot of the songs on it I've known for years but listening to them again for the first time in a long time, especially since I've been listening late at night and on headphones, I've been blown away all over again. Tony Visconti's string arrangements on "Cosmic Dancer" almost moves me to tears.

There’s no particular point that I’m trying to make with my lyrics. They’re generally quite impressionistic and emotive. I don’t so much see my songs as being about anything directly – rather I see them as descriptions of the thoughts and feelings that I have about things. So there’s an extra layer of distance between me and the content. I’m not sure exactly why this is a style of writing that appeals to me but I find the lyric more interesting, both to write and to listen to. If the lyric is directly about something then the role of the audience is one of simply being told something. If the lyric is more indirect, impressionistic, ambiguous, then the audience actively participates in getting something out of it – not necessarily consciously but at least intuitively. And that excites me. I can’t possibly know what someone will get out of my music … it depends what he or she brings to it. So there’s no right or wrong in my writing. Just impressions and interpretations. I often leave songs as explorations, offering all my thoughts, rather than delivering some kind of thesis with a series of conclusions. I hate being told what to think or how to behave and I’m no less irritated by songs that do this than I am by adverts that tell me how much better my life would be if only I drove the right car. In any case, I’m not always sure what my opinion is. Getting my thoughts down on paper (or recording them) means I can sit back and make sense of it as an audience … objectively rather than subjectively. I don’t necessarily know what I think or mean until I’ve written it. Sometimes I think or mean different things at different times and I reserve the right to change the way I think at a moment’s notice. The impressionism and ambiguity in my writing lets me do this. Nick 2008