One of my interests is to understand what constitutes the vibe of a place and what makes one concert different from another.

Sometimes language is not enough.

There actually had been a tradition within English music of the '60s of people looking eastwards, maybe in quite a naïve way, but nonetheless, you had musicians like George Harrison or Bryan Jones recording the musicians of Joujouka in North Africa.

Going to the Sahara Desert and meeting the Touareg band Tinariwen was a life-changing experience. All through that time, I have just carried on learning and meeting musicians, and I keep finding links between different forms.

In a lot of African instruments, you find a rattle, and sound engineers have a hard time making sense of it.

I like to go to old versions and find out what effect beats and scales have on your body, how they can transport you.

One of my interests is to understand what constitutes the vibe of a place and what makes one concert different from another.