What music are you currently grooving to?
I've been looking for things to rip off, so I've been listening to a lot of classical, Beethoven, Bach, stuff like that. I was actually listening to Bach's St Matthew Passion the other day and suddenly an entire Paul Simon song emerged. I also enjoy ethnic folk music, Hungarian and Russian stuff. But my main thing for the last few months has been Radiohead's OK Computer. I was aware of singles they'd had, but I'd never heard a whole album of theirs before. On a textural level, there's just some incredible stuff on there, and the feeling that he has in his voice is just great. I think it's brilliant.
What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album?
I've gone back to Pet Sounds recently, for the music but also for the aspiration of getting off the selling machine and trying to follow your bliss. That's a difficult thing for any of us who have been a selling machine. It's very hard to walk away from it totally.
What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
I was lucky enough to have an older brother who would bring home Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Fats Domino and Little Richard, so I didn't really have to buy a first record. By the time I started buying records myself it was probably folk, Ian & Sylvia, stuff like that. I bought my first record at a local store called Joe Pryne's in California, about 30 miles south of San Francisco.
Which musician (other than yourself) have you ever wanted to be?
Scotty Moore. And I love what Chet Atkins used to do as a producer as well. I think I approach my guitar playing, at least in the studio, from a function of trying to make a good record and not trying to make a guitar statement per se. If you listen to all those great Everly Brothers records, you might not even be aware that a part is there but it wouldn't be a good record without those parts.
What do you sing in the shower?
I don't usually sing in the shower. I'm usually thinking in the shower.
What is your favourite Saturday night record?
Party music or aspiring to be dumb. Louie Louie is maybe the greatest dumb record of all time, all animal energy without those guys really having much of a clue what they were doing.
And your favourite Sunday morning record?
Chamber music, like Mozart. Something very light always feels like morning music to me.