Jackie Leven, in town for his concert, on his sources of inspiration

Short box on the day of the concert: Leven names Van Morrison, Lou Reed and Neil Young as important influences – “Madame George” has an incredibly vivid text, Morrison has become less interesting over the years, Reed's great period runs from Transformer to Berlin. Surprisingly, Chet Baker is his favourite singer. He tends to like individual albums and songs rather than complete bodies of work: the last Grant Lee Buffalo record, Soweto samplers, even a few Ace of Base hits; his “label mate” Ani DiFranco wrote one of the best songs of the century with “Untitled Face”. He toured folk clubs with Elvis Costello before he “became Elvis”; Imperial Bedroom has much that is beautiful; Rocky Burnette is a personal favourite.