Be cruel to me , cause I'm a fool for you.

With the indie kids you have to remember this: they really think that what they do matters in some way. They reckon that history will care. (They don’t know that history will have other shit to be getting on with.) The indie kids figure that they’re passing on the torch or some fucking thing. That, just as they were influenced by someone—the Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richman, the Stooges, whoever—then, in the future, young bands will be influenced by them. Maybe so. Maybe a few thousand malnourished cockless freaks scattered around the globe will give a shit. So what? Real people don’t..

I think in the world of indie music there's this sort of false modesty.

Arctic Monkeys have made it look as easy as falling off a log. They're just, basically, four lads from Sheffield; teenagers who've put together their songs and released them through the Internet.

The Arctic Monkeys have connected with the mainstream in one leap. This is an outstanding figure as January is a quiet time of the year for sales.

'Hatful of Hollow' and 'The Smiths' were lent to me, and they made me want to create music that might make another person feel like they made me feel - to have an effect on someone.