I was falling in love with a guy who lived in New York, and he was the big love of my life. He introduced me to some really good music. Bauhaus' "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" takes me back to that time. My boyfriend would play me that vinyl album, and it was a weird counterpart to the Cure for me. That song reminds me of being in Brooklyn and being in this crazy long-distance relationship, and having my eyes opened up to all this stuff.
Compared to London, New York feels like you're consistently plugged into an electrical socket. Before this, I made a New York pilgrimage when was 20-- it sounds a bit naïve now, but I loved the beat writers and Andy Warhol and I was excited to discover the city. Back then, I remember we went to this crazy independent erotic film festival in this strange building in Manhattan, and I left my hat behind when we left. We went back and we were banging on the door-- we were so young and wide-eyed. Then this strange guy opened the door and was like "Oh, you have to come downstairs and see this thing." So we followed him downstairs, and there was this crazy artist there with a shock of white hair-- he almost looked like a modern day Andy Warhol. He'd created this giant lightning machine in this room, and when he turned it on it creatd these two bolts of lightning, like [makes thunder noise]-- an ear-splitting sound. It was like this giant science experiment. And I got my hat back, too.