Ian Anderson

“My first encounter with the music of Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson came through an advert placed on my school noticeboard in 1980. Somebody was selling a copy of cheaply. Due to my interest in progressive music, I’d heard of Jethro Tull but at that time didn’t own anything by the band. I walked across town in the pouring rain with pocket money in hand to collect the album. On returning home – wet, naturally –’s dark atmosphere and eloquent lyrics appealed to me immediately. The artwork and the music also had an unsettling sense of otherness and antiquity. In some ways there was a connection with how early Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator appeared to me at that time. The likes of , and may have only been nine years old in 1980, but they seemed disconnected from the zeitgeist in an exciting and intriguing way. I’m not sure my music has any Jethro Tull influence at all, though the excess of flute on 2017’s may owe something to the band.