Going there [Japan] in the early 80s was quite a culture shock. I think the bombardment of Shinjuku and all that would have filtered through, which certainly informed things we later filmed.

We've always been journalists - and have seen ourselves in that way. But we sort of recontextualized it through music.

It was an important period for us, because even though we weren't a "punk band", and what became a model for a punk band, we were able to be dragged along by the spirit of that time.

We were iconoclastic. We weren't there to sort of follow the trends really. So it was important that we were making a statement against that.

In the 80s, we were still living in a kind of Cold War environment.

I don't think it had a name when we started. If punk has any roots, Dada is part of it. And we saw ourselves as part of a kind of Dada tradition.

I think what we tried to do lyrically, vocally and musically was to capture a sound.