Das Boot frontman Max Mitchell and drummer Jess Batour run us through the songs that inspired them to pick up and play.
1. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Max - I had to start with this song, its everything to me. I can remember the first time I heard it, I was on the bus to school. It came on the radio, and knowing nothing about music I asked my friend "what the hell is this?!" Of course once I found out I had to hear more and fell immediately in love with the record. Its such a bizarre structure, it just shouldn't work as a song. Its fascinating, when you listen to it, its like being on a roller-coaster.
2. This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads
Max - I'm not sure if this is my favourite Talking Heads song, but its certainly up there. What I love about this song and in fact, about a lot of Talking Heads songs is the almost tribal under beat, which carries the song. I love the intricacies of their music, the little in and out instruments that appear here and there. I think the lyric that makes the song for me is "Home is where I want to be, pick me up and turn me around". If I was going to introduce someone to Talking Heads, this is where I would start.
3. Clair De Lune - Claude Debussy
Max - Classical has always been a big part of my life, right from an early age. Classical is music in its purest form for me, you can truly feel the emotion that the composer wants to convey to the listener. I believe this to be particularly true for piano compositions such as Debussy's "Clair De Lune" and Chopins "Nocturne". This particular song takes me back to my early musical roots.
4. Heartbeats - The Knife
Jess - When I first heard this track I didn't know what to think as I hadn't heard anything like it before. I think I just fell in love with the weirdness of it all, they make interesting music to listen to and now they're one of my favourite bands.
5. Jenny Was a Friend of Mine - The Killers
Jess - Hot Fuss was the first proper album I bought after my Spices Girls era. I started to play drums around the time the album was released and so I decided to learn each track. This track in particular is most fun to play and got me to pursue drumming.
