What’s a song that grew on you over time?

Time was you could scan the live sections in the music press and The Fall would be touring, playing small venues and charging next to nothing for tickets. I could kick myself for not going to see them, but it took me years to develop a taste for the band, and by then it was too late. What a formidable back catalogue, though—so many albums, live recordings, and compilations to explore. It's impossible to select a single track and say "this grew on me" or neatly represents a band whose very nature seems to defy being pigeonholed. Instead, I'll choose Lost In Music—the song of theirs that first captured my imagination.

What’s your favorite deep cut from an album?

I'm not sure this track fits the usual definition of a deep cut, but I'm choosing Y Teimlad by Datblygu anyway. I first heard it as a cover by Super Furry Animals on their album Mwng—notable for being entirely in the Welsh language. It's a lovely song even if you don't understand the words, though that's not really a problem nowadays. Perhaps a better frame of reference for this choice is: a song that opened the door to something overlooked by the mainstream.

Share a song you feel was ahead of its time.

I discovered Brian Eno's solo records long after they were released—even after many of the 1990s records I enjoyed as a teenager, which were clearly influenced by his work and themselves felt ahead of their time. Some years ago, I played The Big Ship to a much younger colleague who told me that listening to artists like Jon Hopkins at work helped them focus over the farmyard din of our open-plan office. Their response when I drew their attention to the release date was marvellous: "It's like electronic music before electronic music was a thing." Well, yes…

A song from a genre you didn’t think you’d like—what changed?

Back when I was a teenager, I had some friends who were into metal. They'd play Metallica records and patiently explain the quality of the musicianship. But I was having none of it. It took me about 30 years to come around to their way of thinking. Sometimes when I play Master of Puppets, I'll think about those leather-and-denim-clad Brummies and accept they did have a point.

What is a song that feels like home to you?

Home is a fluid concept when you're young and move around a bit. But this prompt made me think of the first time I felt truly settled as an adult—finally finding a nice flat, a good job, great friends. Going hi-fi shopping on Gray's Inn Road and letting the salesman talk me into spending more than I should have on my first separates system: Cambridge Audio Azur components and Bowers & Wilkins 600 speakers with eye-catching Kevlar cones. Cabbing it back across London, excitedly wiring it up, putting on Talking Book, and being astonished by how good it sounded. Listening to it now takes me back to Adys Road, Peckham—the place I happily called home for a few years in the 2000s.

What’s the first song you’d play at a party?

I'd make a poor party DJ. My instinct would be to share songs I like, that have meaning to me, instead of acknowledging what other people actually need. Anyway, keeping that in mind, here's a song that perhaps doesn't get selected too often nowadays, so has the benefit of being a novelty while also hopefully getting people up on their feet.

What song do you associate with the current season?

It's still winter in the UK, but when I look out, I see spring bulbs on the cusp of flowering. Soon my garden will be awash with vivid purples and yellows. I know seeing those colours will lift my spirits and that life's what you make it.

What song reminds you of your first love?

Fuzzy Logic by Super Furry Animals, particularly If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You, reminds me of the first person I fell in love with who also happened to love me back. Listening to it takes me back to 1996 and draughty student houses—which didn't matter because we were young and happy for a while, at least.

What artist or band changed your music taste forever? Pick your favorite song of theirs.

Sometime in 1994, while I was at sixth form college, I heard whispers about a club in Birmingham called Oscillate which was, by all accounts, extraordinary. The first time I went along, with some trepidation, I was a glum, long-haired Doc Marten–wearing indie kid. I came reeling out early the following morning, ears ringing and mind buzzing to the sound of the dawn chorus—disoriented, elated, and altered. Within a few months I was unrecognisable: clothes, hair, music, friends, and attitude—all transformed. A lot of different artists played sets and DJ’ed at Oscillate, and at best I have hazy and jumbled memories from those nights, but Ptolemy by Aphex Twin feels representative and conjures memories of those times when my musical tastes and the course of my life changed.

Pick a song from an artist or band that’s had the biggest impact on your life.

Bowie and Eno have possibly had the biggest impact on my adult life, but when I stand back and think about my whole life, from that perspective, it would have to be the Beatles. My earliest memories include rooting through my parents' vinyl records from the sixties and being fascinated by their music—looking at the sleeves, captivated by the images, then playing the records and being transported to another world. All the bands I've loved and records I've bought, showing the influence of their work. Revisiting their music again and again over the years, finding different things to love, as their songs gradually intertwine with my own life and memories of friendship and loneliness, happiness and sadness. It always seems to come back to the Fab Four.