Brix Smith Start

UNCANNY PERSON

What music are you currently grooving to? Sparklehorse, It’s A Wonderful Life. I knew Mark Linkous, he was an extraordinarily gifted writer, player and visionary. If I’m in the gym, or before going into the studio, Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. And something that’s kind of new for me is The Lovely Eggs. I’m fascinated by them, they’re so free and quirky.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Hunky Dory! It’s a masterpiece and it just transported me.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? Carole King’s Tapestry, probably from Hyde Park Records in Chicago. The hippy counsellors who drove us to summer camp always had the radio on, and those songs were always playing. I must have been 11.

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? I guess I’d like to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, write songs like David Bowie and be a frontperson like Freddie Mercury. But I’m a happy camper being myself!

What do you sing in the shower? Lots of times melodies and bits of songs come to me in the shower, so I sing nonsense which then turns into sense, repeated in the most basic nursery rhyme fashion.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? Buzzcocks’ Singles Going Steady. I just love the simplicity, the power, the cleanliness of the hooks, how concise the songwriting is. It fills you with energy. And your Sunday morning record? That’s easy. The Velvet Underground & Nico, all of it. And possibly Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen, they’re all Sunday things. Brix & The Extricated’s Breaking State is out now on Grit Over Glamour.