What is your first musical memory?
Probably being in the choir at the nativity play at school when I was 4 or 5 and being asked to "sing" a little more quietly.
What was the first album you owned?
Best of Bob Dylan... a very old tape bought at a jumble sale probably in attempt to impress my dad. I was about 6.
Were you not a musician, what would your profession be?
Probably a social worker... I was enjoying doing that before I left to be in the band.
What song do you wish you had written?
Lots of my favourite songs are by very autobiograpical songwriters like Jeffery Lewis or The Mountain Goats so it would be weird for me to want to have written them. I've never really thought about wanting to write a song that was by someone else.
What was the first concert you attended?
The first concert I was taken to was by a rock band called Thunder. The first I chose to go to was Pulp in 1995; they were fantastic. I'd got my tickets really far in advance and had them stuck to the ceiling above my bed so I’d see them every morning and get excited.
What three bands or artists, dead or alive, would be part of your ultimate one-night concert performance?
Jeffery Lewis, The Mountain Goats, The Hold Steady.
What instrument would you like to play, that you currently cannot?
I cannot play instruments. I wish more than anything that I could play the guitar.
With whom would you like to collaborate?
There’s lots of bands I’d like to collaborate with, but then I start to think about the reality. It would be quite intimidating, so I'd have to say no one.
Which one of your songs would you put in a time capsule?
“Nag Nag Nag Nag.” It sort of describes me the most.
What one album can you not live without?
The Fidelity Wars by Hefner
Who was (or is) your biggest influence as a musician?
Jonathan Richman. Hearing him is when I realised a song can be about anything.
Compiled by Bob Ham
Photo: Dan Monick
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Art Brut's It's a Bit Complicated is out now on Downtown Records.
http://www.artbrut.org.uk
