Earlier this year, Glasgow based rock band, Paws, released their fourth album, Your Church On My Bonfire, to unanimous critical acclaim. The band, who have also toured world wide with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and Japanese Breakfast, made their new record with esteemed producer, Andy Monaghan of Frightened Rabbit, with single, Not Enough, referencing The Postal Service.

As they prepare to head out on a UK tour with Ash in July (Bury St Edmonds) and August (Reading, Derby, Edinburgh and Cardiff), we caught up with singer, Phillip Taylor, to find out what inspires him across the arts; these are his Sound & Vision picks:

My favourite record: Pod by The Breeders

The first Breeders album Pod is my all time favourite record. I loved the Pixies (again passed onto me fortunately by my cool influential older brother), but the first thing I asked after hearing Surfer Rosa was “is there another record where the woman sings more songs?” As a result, I was given Pod. It’s perfect. Kim’s sense of melody will always enthral me. This record was recorded in Edinburgh at a studio that no longer exists (a fact I learned after I’d fallen in love with the record). That blew me away when I was younger and still kind of does now. Albini and Breeders in Edinburgh in the early nineties making my favourite album. The just off mic chat song interludes between band and producer always makes me giggle. Listen to Oh! Of you never have. Goosebumps every time.

(Arguably) my favourite film: Stand By Me 

Stand By Me is arguably my favourite film ever. Growing up in a small town in the Scottish Highlands with not that much subculture around, I was lucky to have an older brother who fed me such cultural gems. Seeing this as a young boy, the characters were all so relatable to me. I wanted a gang of misfits to go on weird adventures with. Corey Feldman and River Phoenix were very cool to me. Their style and their attitude. I still get the same buzz when I throw that movie on. You could say the same deal for The Goonies. Cherry pez. What a choice…

My favourite book: The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

This classic tale of the origins of Halloween following the story another gang of small town kids locked in suburbia is just comforting for me. I read it once a year without fail. So, could very well be the book I’ve read more than any other. The first paragraph of the first chapter, is picture perfect to me.