9. Nina SimoneNina Simone Sings The Blues

I came across this on the way out to Hoboken to play Maxwell’s, and my manager, Geoff Travis, gave it to me as a gift and we put it on the CD player in the van. I was very touched by his gift – he’d thought to give me that record, I was very moved by that. I knew Nina Simone obviously, but I’d never heard her sing like this. It just turned my head – I’m not sure how it’s influenced me as a songwriter or as a musician, but again, another album of just classic songs, one after the other, and so much attitude, so much fucking fire. I think, for me, her questions, her lyrics, were just fantastic – from ‘Do I Move You?’ all the way through. It was a real learning curve of growing up – there’s a lot of wisdom in these songs and also a lot of diversity. The music’s also pretty hard-hitting: a lot of groove in there, a lot of amazing rhythm. Just an unusual, really surprising record.