John Grant’s synth heroes

Vince clarke

“The first synth record I really loved was Depeche Mode, Speak

And Spell. That record was huge for me. I was listening to it the other day on my pretty decent system at home, and it still sounds amazing. Vince Clarke (pictured below) – what a genius he is. In several incarnations. Yazoo –

Upstairs At Eric’s was huge for me too. He’s a genius in songwriting and making things huge that crossed over, but not in a cheesy, bad way… That’s quite a feat.”

MissinG Persons

“The song ‘Tempest’ on the new album is about being a kid and playing Atari games like Millipede and Centipede and Tempest, all the time. Me and my friend would listen to Spring

Session M by Missing Persons endlessly. That band, Terry Bozzio, Dale Bozzio, those people hung out with Frank Zappa. It was just flawless, the musicianship, the aesthetic and everything. I think there’s a bit of Duran Duran’s ‘The Chauffeur’ in the DNA of ‘Tempest’, too.”

synth soundtracks

“Bless Waxworks and all those labels reissuing old ’80s synth scores! I love them all: The Boogeyman by Tim Krog, CHUD., The Howling by Pino Donaggio… Planet Of Vampires by Gino Marinuzzi is something I’ve been listening to a lot lately. And a lot of Ennio Morricone. And also David Shire’s unused synth score to Apocalypse Now – I was listening to it constantly while making this record. And of course some Les Baxter and Esquivel, that crazy, funky easy listening with weird Moog stuff going on.”