Stephin Merritt

MAGNETIC COMPOSER

What music are you currently grooving to? François Couperin’s harpsichord pieces. I’m a sucker for harpsichord and organ music. Pop music? No. I make enough of it. But I do listen to maybe one song, just once, in the morning, to get whatever song is in my head, out of my head. Recently Japan, Gentlemen Take Polaroids – beautiful.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? I don’t have one. I don’t have favourite things. But I listened to [Fleetwood Mac’s] Tusk a great deal. I’m sure I’d enjoy Rumours on headphones – but why listen to Rumours when you can listen to Tusk?

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? ABC by The Jackson 5, one of the towering bubblegum classics. It was on the back of a box of Alpha-Bits cereal, I made my mother buy it for me at the supermarket. The grooves were in the cardboard.

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? On 50 Song Memoir I have a song about wanting to be John Foxx. I still want to be John Foxx. He is elegant and sophisticated and not annoying, or only annoying when he’s avant-garde, in the perfect way, in ways I wish I’d thought of. He is pointedly artificial.

What do you sing in the shower? I never sing unless there’s a microphone. I don’t sing for pleasure, ever.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? The Silicon Teens, Music For Parties. I don’t like parties: I’m sure Silicon Teens don’t either.

And your Sunday morning record? Congotronics 2: Buzz’n’Rumble From The Urb’n’Jungle. It’s incredible, it sounds like people playing kalimbas and marimbas through giant stacks of Marshall amps. I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on. The Magnetic Fields’ 50 Song Memoir is out on March 3 on Nonesuch.