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The first song I remember hearing
Huey Lewis and the News – ‘Stuck With You’
“It’s hard to say definitively, but I do have a memory of being in my dad’s Toyota Celica with him and his friends wearing short OP [Ocean Pacific] shorts and Huey Lewis playing on the stereo. The memory is just Huey Lewis and all these hairy thighs, basically.”
The first song I fell in love with
Warrant – ‘Down Boys’
“This is a song that’ll make your skin crawl. I was into hair metal when I was, like, seven – and not even the cooler, more muscular hair metal like Mötley Crüe or Guns N’ Roses. This was the heyday of hair metal though: you had this on the one hand, and New Kids on the Block on the other. Looking back now, it’s so funny that this look and sound was so ubiquitous – it was, like, half of all music for about six years, and then it just died hard and fast.”
The song I can’t get out of my head
Wham! – ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’
“It just came into my head for some reason a week ago. I don’t know, you can drop your phone and the sound it makes kind of takes you to this song that you’ve had in your subconscious for years. “Duh-duh-duh-Jitterbug.” So I sang a bit and then my wife – who was in the same room but wasn’t even listening to me – started whistling it about three minutes later. So I guess I managed to implant it in her head too.”
The song that reminds me of home
Pixies – ‘Wave Of Mutilation’
“The only musician I had a deep connection with as a teenager who I still listen to today is Frank Black and the Pixies. I think I first heard the slow version of ‘Wave of Mutilation’ in that Christian Slater movie Pump Up the Volume, and I just remember that I loved it straight away. I can’t imagine what Frank Black and I would ever work together on, but honestly he is my fucking favourite. He writes all these super-dense lyrics about Los Angeles, California, the ocean, sci-fi and astral planes. I just love what he sings about.”
The song I wish I’d written
John Lennon – ‘Watching The Wheels’
“Either this or ‘Let Me Roll It’ by Paul McCartney and Wings. They’re both so simple, but groovy and profound. I’m not a Beatles-phile at all but I can definitely appreciate their greatness. Maybe it’s sacrilegious to say it but I love George Harrison too, even though I know musically he’s not on a par with these guys.”
The song that makes me want to dance
Sly and the Family Stone – ‘Dance To The Music’
“I suppose it’s a bit on the nose but this song has just got that irresistible energy, tempo and beat – all those things that make you want to dance. I do need a bit of cajoling to get on the dance floor; I’m not running out there, you know. Am I a good dancer? I wouldn’t say that, but at the same time I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassing either.”
The song I do at karaoke
Harry Nilsson – ‘Everybody’s Talkin”
“It’s not a difficult song for me to sing, and I can’t sing a lot of songs. I can mostly only sing in a low register, unless it’s really high, which means I can pretty much chipmunk it out. But with this song, it’s not so much that it’s low – more that it’s soft singing and you don’t have to belt it out. The deep-voiced singers tend to be good for me. I can also do Leonard Cohen or maybe ‘Hungry Heart’ by Bruce Springsteen.”
The song I want played at my funeral
Henry Mancini – ‘Snowfall’
“It’s very bittersweet, but it’s not too downbeat. It’s sad but it’s not melodramatic, and I definitely don’t want any fucking ballads at my funeral. But at the same time, I’m not going to be so ironic as to play a party song. I want a nice mood piece where you can really stare into space and appreciate the leaves.”
The album that I’ll never get bored with during lockdown
Marvin Gaye – ‘What’s Going On’
“The songs sound so similar, in a way, that the album is one big mood. And I find the mood to be very bittersweet. It’s sweet, it’s certainly sad, but it’s also hopeful. And it’s mellow and reflective at the same time. And it kind of takes me back to when I first moved to LA in 1999. I worked at the clothing store French Connection and they only played two albums: ‘What’s Going On’ and this album by the New Radicals. Remember ‘You Get What You Give’? That whole album was good, and I think it was their only album actually.”
Adam Brody stars in ‘The Kid Detective’, which is available to download and keep from March 15 – and to rent on digital from March 29
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