The people that inspire me are people like David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, and some of the great producers like Rick Rubin, Nigel Godrich, Quincy Jones and George Martin. I think you can find inspiration in anything, anything you hear that you like.

I'm not religious in a complete strict observant type of way but as far as believing in the main tenets of the religion, things like that I am - I obviously fast on Yom Kippur, that kind of thing. It's important to me.

[on why he covered songs by The Smiths] I think if you're going to cover a song, you might as well cover your favorites. There's no point doing Jessica Simpson covers just for the purpose of not pissing anyone off!

By the time I moved to New York, I had already been raised on eight years of Radio 1. The radio and music culture in England is not so racially segregated between rap, reggae, alternative or whatever. My dad [former band manager Laurence Ronson] also listened to a lot of funk and soul around the house, so when I moved to New York I started listening to a lot of Def Jam and [The Beatles] music. And whenever I came back to visit my dad, I would listen to a lot of Manchester music. That's why my tastes are so wide-ranging.