Lamb

There's a spiritual side to your music, isn't there? I practice Zen Buddhism. I know there are a lot of different forms. It's a very simple form; there's nothing cosmic or airy-fairy about it. This is what it is: living in the present time as opposed to rushing round like an idiot. And I have a real tendency to rush around like an idiot doing things. It's really important for me.

Some critics have compared your chilled beats to the likes of Portishead. Any influence there? A while ago when trip-hop was the big thing it was really boring when people were trying to label us in certain way. Now there isn't really a genre to put us in with, so I quite like that. I think Lamb have always been working towards being defined as Lamb and nothing else. That's what we've always felt.

Your own solo music is much softer and acoustic compared with Lamb. How did this come about? I did this thing where you open the door that goes outside and you sing something to the world. And I was shit scared! I've been in a signed band for six years and I am absolutely petrified of singing out of this door. But I do it and it's not as bad as I think and I am loving it. I'm buzzing on the fact we don't need to plug anything in; I don't need new software or an engineer, I just need to open my mouth and there it is.

Are there any prospects for another Lamb album? We're thinking of it actually, yeah. What we find is our albums are quite difficult to have as atmosphere music; our albums are quite complex. They're more albums you would listen to rather than have on in the background when your mates are round. Our remixes are much more that kind of thing; we could endorse a remix album – there are few remixes hanging around that haven't seen the light of day.

What would we hear on your iPod if we turned it on right now? All kinds of stuff. I just got the new Basement Jaxx album, the new Tosca album is beautiful, the Peaches album is wicked, Radiohead... I listen to everything from Slipknot to Madonna. I used to be well into rock music; I like stuff that gets people to jump around. Dance music's all a bit cool. When you get into a mosh-pit, there's something quite powerful about that.

Lamb perform at the Peats Ridge Festival on New Year's Eve.

Subscribe to our Spotify playlists