As an artist, you're pretty sheltered backstage. You often don't know what's going on out there.

I pretty much grew up when punk was big in the UK. The Sex Pistols were heroes for me. I used to run around like Johnny Rotten. I had a jacket like his.

I was pretty taken with Patti Smith, she was my heroine.

The Beatles, the Small Faces and the Kinks were great bands, but that was in the '60s.

When I first began to write, I was writing on bass, because I was thinking more Public Image, more dub.