We've always been observant of things, and I think Crackdown was very much like that and the film interpretation was that journalistic view of that situation.

Looking back, I think we were very much a part of democratizing music, and we wanted to demystify the process of making music - to show it's a myth.

I think that's the fascinating thing that exists now. This contrasts with a celebrity art and celebrity music culture.

We were fortunate at that time we were working with Virgin, and with Flood, probably more well-known as Brian Eno's engineer now and U2's producer, etc. Even though we weren't working in a strictly popular music area, which was great, we were lucky enough to work with people who were on the cusp of those sort of things.

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

I think we saw our reaction coming from Dada, but at the same time, it formed into punk, which was very much a reaction to the social conditions. That was part of it for us as well, and that's why we were kind of swept along with punk.

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.