The first song I remember hearing
Duran Duran â âThe Reflexâ
âThat jumps into my head. I remember having a Duran Duran Smash Hits sticker book and I really was quite obsessed with Duran Duran during that era. The eighties sound was so vibrant because it was when technology was really hitting its stride. As a kid, hearing that song, Iâd just never heard anything like that before. It was so exciting.â
The first song I fell in love with
Blind Faith â âCanât Find My Way Homeâ
âI was probably 12 or 13 and I just couldnât stop playing it. I just found it so haunting. Iâm not sure I understood that something sad was happening to make this guy sing like that in this moment. I just found Stevie Winwoodâs vocal so haunting. I didnât understand it. I didnât know what was happening to my brain and my body. The song was just haunting me.â
The first album I fell in love with
Guns N’ Roses â âAppetite For DestructionâÂ
âAgain, Iâd just never heard anything like it. Songs like âMr. Brownstoneâ and âWelcome To The Jungleâ â I was aware that these songs had different movements, sections that made a song feel like a continual build. And it was exciting. Iâm not sure I knew how it was all put together, but I wanted to know.â
The first album I ever owned
Michael Jackson â âThrillerâ
âI specifically remember going to the shop to buy it â me and, like, 30million other people in America at that time. I liked it immediately, but Iâd admit that when I was eight, I didnât really understand the slow jams like I would now. Something like âThe Lady In My Lifeâ. I just really liked the hits, like âBeat Itâ.â
My first gig
Billy Squier
âThe first one I remember was Billy Squier. Do you know who that is? Heâs most famous for a song called âThe Big Beatâ which is now one of the most famous breakbeats â itâs the beat from âFix Up Look Sharpâ by Dizzee Rascal and Jay-Zâs â99 Problemsâ. He was this rocker from the eighties, a bit like Robert Plant or something and he had a couple of huge hits but was always ripped apart by critics. But whatever. I think he was maybe too good looking or something. I think he had a crush on my mom [British socialite Ann Dexter Jones]. She took me to a few shows.â
The song I wish Iâd written
The Zutons â âValerieâÂ
âAt this point, whether Iâm DJing or playing live, I can delude myself that I did write it. But I didnât. Dave McCabe did, but I do feel a strong attachment to it. I didnât hear the brilliance of it until Amy [Winehouse] sang it. It was her who loved it. Sheâd heard it down at her local and would sing it in the shower. I liked it, it had a sort of Stones-y thing to it, but Amy knew and so she sang it on my covers album [2007âs âVersionâ]. When you dissect the song you realise itâs a real classic. The structure, the two chords, that soul that so many musicians from Liverpool just have. But it was Amy that first heard that it was a soul song. Itâs all Amyâs genius picking that song.â
The song that reminds me of home
Anything produced by DJ Premier
âI grew up in London, but New York is home, and any classic, early ’90s DJ Premier production sounds like New York to me. The obvious one would be âN.Y. State of Mindâ by Nas. I hear the opening bars of that song and I can smell the subway! New York is going through a bit of a revival right now â there was the Pop Smoke stuff and Cardi B â but it hasnât quite been the same since it got really expensive in the early 2000s and everyone moved out to Los Angeles. Itâll come back around. You can never write New York off.â
The song I can never hear again
Mark Ronson â ‘Uptown Funk (ft. Bruno Mars)’
âIâm especially proud of it â but Iâve heard âUptown Funkâ a lot! I mean, I never listen to my own music at home or in the car, but when I DJ out I play it. I was actually DJing last Saturday night, the first time in a year and a half, and I was dreading playing it. Iâm a DJ. Iâm riddled with neurosis and anxiety, and I thought it was going to be the moment that people were finally sick of it. I genuinely thought they were going to look up at the DJ booth and say, âReally? Itâs 2021â. But I played it and there was this mass flooding of the dancefloor. Iâm very grateful for that song.â
The song I sing at karaoke
Train â âDrops of Jupiterâ
âI have done karaoke. I enjoy it. There are those songs that are designed for karaoke â where if you canât sing well you can almost sound like a singer if you sing loud enough and project. âDrops Of Jupiterâ by Train is one of those songs for me. âBohemian Rhapsodyâ isnât.â
The song I want played at my funeral
Pete Rock & CL Smooth â âThey Reminisce Over YouâÂ
âWell, I donât want anyone being overly dramatic on my behalf and I would like people to have a good time, but thereâs this song by [New York hip-hop duo] Pete Rock & CL Smooth thatâs called âThey Reminisce Over Youâ that I really like. Itâs a beautiful song, about someoneâs passing â and it has one of my favourite beats of all time. Yeah, Iâll have that. No, I wonât have âUptown FunkââŠâ
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