9. Husker DuCandy Apple Grey

I hadn’t listened to this for a while, but I wanted to put something in that influenced my early songwriting. Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr. did so much, Hüsker Dü particularly. I loved the freneticness of their music, coupled with these brilliantly written, clever songs. This was their first album on a major label after being more of an underground punk band, but it still has the fast songs and the in-your-face guitars.

I like it when you get that in a band. Buzzcocks are another example – a really fast punky band with more heartfelt, intelligent lyrics. There’s a song called ‘Downer’, an early Lush song, that’s very influenced by Hüsker Dü, and in their harmonies. I’d listened to them so much in the mid-80s. There was an idea that Bob Mould was going to produce a Lush record after we’d done Spooky with Robin, too. I was really into it and thought we needed to find our own sound. He couldn’t do it in the end, but he was very interested. I’m still very honoured that he was.