Animals as Leaders has spoken so much too me without words at all. Essentially, djent and progressive metal as a whole has done this, but this band in particular has been magic. As a musician myself, I find listening to this really technical music inspired me to go to a higher level in music, and AAL was my main source of inspiration to do so.

I can’t pick just one band, however, I clearly remember the first time I listened to

• Black metal as a genre
• Aphex Twin
• Aenima by Tool
• Traversee by Year of no light
• Black Sabbath
• Industrial Rock in general and Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails in particular
• Hyperballad by Björk

I’m sure there are more if I think for longer.

Punk > indie > hip hop > jazz, roots, Americana, > all

I play music and I love almost all music styles as long as there is a weighty performance and evokes the human spirit.

There is just something about creation itself that I find beautiful, and there is no one genre or artist that changed my perspective.

If there was it’d be this band Subtle. That informed a lot of my ideas on what good art even means.

My favorite guitar player is Richard Thompson.

I have a bunch of fav drummers, buy anyone who’s got soul is worth a listen.

I think that’s the point. There is no best, there is only you.

I think poetry changed my musical identity more than music itself.

Punk.

I’d been pondering a change in career anyway, but I was at work one hot summer’s day, sweating my arse off, listening to my tunes on the stereo in the workshop. Pennywise - Same Old Story came on and something clicked in me. Cycled past a tiny local radio station on the way home, went in to ask how to volunteer my help, and a couple of months later I was starting on a radio production degree.

That track still fires me up to this day.

Tool