The first song I remember hearing<\/p>\n
Pearl Jam \u2013 \u2018Jeremy\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI have a distinct memory of driving down the Whitemud freeway aged around four in my hometown in Edmonton [in Canada] and\u00a0 \u2018Jeremy\u2019 by Pearl Jam<\/a> was playing on the radio. It confused me, and I asked my mum \u2018Is he [frontman Eddie Vedder<\/a>] speaking English?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The first album I bought<\/p>\n Weezer \u2013 \u2018Weezer\u2019 (\u2018Blue Album\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a young teen, I had 30 bucks and picked up the \u2018Blue Album\u2019 at the local CD store and listened to it on my Sony Walkman. It was during peak-Weezer<\/a> where they were all over music video television. I thought, \u2018These guys look cool. Oh my God, they write songs about weed!\u2019 They encapsulated teenage counterculture to me.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve no idea if Rivers Cuomo<\/a> ever heard my live covers of Weezer<\/a>. I butchered those songs lots of times, so maybe he did! But I have a lot of respect for the band and still think they\u2019re great.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The first gig I went to<\/p>\n Village People at RE\/MAX Field, Edmonton, 1995<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMy mum had a couple of different jobs, so I grew up in a YMCA childcare program. I was in their daycare through to junior high school. When I was five, they took all the kids from the different YMCAs to the baseball field of the local team, The Edmonton Trappers, where the Village People<\/a> played their hits including \u2018In the Navy\u2019 and, of course, we all did the \u2018Y.M.C.A.\u2019 dance! It was very strange. The American Indian Village Person was wearing a leather flap and you\u2019d see his bare ass every time he turned around to dance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The song that reminds me of home<\/p>\n \u2018O Canada\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got to be the Canadian National Anthem. When you\u2019re younger, you go through a period of trying to reject where you\u2019re from. I once thought Canada was kind of goofy \u2013 we have a [maple] leaf on our flag and our reputation is simply that we\u2019re nice. That\u2019s all changed as I\u2019ve gotten older. The American national anthem talks about bombs flying through the air, but ours is just sweet, and I love to sing it and have pride in my country.\u201d<\/p>\n The song I wish I\u2019d written<\/p>\n The Moody Blues \u2013 \u2018Had to Fall in Love\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEvery component of it sucks me in \u2013 in a way that no other song from their catalogue does. When I first heard it five years ago, I felt like I\u2019d uncovered this rare jewel or mystical chalice buried at the bottom of a temple. It\u2019s almost like I could have written that song \u2013 it has a kinship to the music I\u2019m making. Hearing it, I was like, \u2018Oh that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do. The Moody Blues<\/a>: you understand me\u2019. I\u2019m obsessed with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The song I can\u2019t get out of my head<\/p>\n Emerson, Lake & Palmer \u2013 \u2018Lucky Man\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s frying my brain but I don\u2019t mind it being there. It\u2019s not intrusive; the song just rocks! The chorus of \u2018Ooh, what a lucky man he was\u2019 is an impossible-to-forget earworm that should be illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The song I can no longer listen to<\/p>\n Harry Nilsson \u2013 \u2018Everybody\u2019s Talkin\u2019\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a huge Harry Nilsson<\/a> fan and he\u2019s one of my great inspirations, but I just hammered \u2018Everybody\u2019s Talkin\u2019\u2019 to death. I love the song but I played it too much. I\u2019ll still listen to it if it comes on randomly, but I\u2019m not reaching for it anymore. I\u2019ve heard it too many times!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The song that makes me cry<\/p>\n Harry Nilsson \u2013 \u2018Turn On Your Radio\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI took Harry\u2019s roses away, but let\u2019s give \u2018em back to him, because \u2018Turn On Your Radio\u2019 makes me cry every time. It smokes me. There\u2019s a scene in the documentary Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin\u2019 About Him)? where one of his collaborators talks about sitting with him in his car shortly before he died, and Harry playing his songs on cassette. Afterwards, Harry says, \u2018Well, that\u2019s my life\u2019s work\u2019. As that story\u2019s being told, \u2018\u2026Radio\u2019 is playing and it absolutely tortures me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnother one is \u2018Texas Girl At The Funeral Of Her Father\u2019 by Randy James. It\u2019s one of the saddest songs I\u2019ve ever heard. It got me in a very vulnerable moment when I first heard it so any time I listen to it, I\u2019m transported back to how I felt then, and it turns a tap on! But it\u2019s very beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Why were you feeling vulnerable?<\/p>\n \u201cTwo years ago, my cat was very ill and I was on a plane home to put him down, which was horrible. So I\u2019ll always remember Pickles and attribute that song to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The song that makes me want to dance<\/p>\n Michael Jackson \u2013 \u2018Rock With You\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt depends what kind of dancing it is. If it\u2019s fun-time at the club dancing, then \u2018Rock With You\u2019 by Michael Jackson<\/a>. But if it\u2019s romantic dance-y time, then I love \u2018Change Partners\u2019 by Frank Sinatra<\/a>. The sentiment is cheeky; it\u2019s romantic and bad boy. I\u2019m a horrible dancer. My partner and I were at a wedding recently trying to two-step, but it was a \u2018two left feet\u2019 vibe. If anybody wants to give me dancing lessons, I\u2019d gladly accept!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The song I do at karaoke<\/p>\n