I read a collection of academic essays about your work, and at the back of one there’s a biographical timeline. It says, at age 12, “Loses his Catholic faith and begins to listen to punk rock.” What was going on when you were 12? Were those things related?
They totally were. I got into the Clash particularly around that age, 12 or 13. They were such a great band to help a kid question everything. I was a working-class kid who had no future apart from a dead-end job, and I left school very young, at 16. Bands like the Clash showed you that there was another way. You didn’t have to have a life that was dictated to you. You didn’t have to work in a factory or an office. There was hope. So, yeah, I grabbed onto that with both hands at the age of 12. And the Catholic thing, I think if you’re starting to question governments and people who force you to do things against your will, which is the punk-rock ethic, naturally the Catholic Church is going to be right in the firing line.
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