Musical art moving into the Internet domain helps diversity and discovery. You'd be unlikely to buy a CD from an unknown band in a physical store just becuase it was filed somewhere in the great alphabetical swathe of the store's "rock" shelf or "pop" shelf. Search, intelligent reommendations, online reviews and a broad range of common services in the internet music realm mean you can find a small, indie or totally unsigned band, from another part of the world, who only play gigs in their local pub, but produce exactly the type of music you want to hear.

I find it very hard to believe that a multi-million dollar international corporation fuels its business with "art". If art, passion and love of music are the driver, then I'll sign up.

I've been coding music for 20 years or so - basically since I first got hold of a computer that was capable of making primitive tonal sounds. Over the last few years, I've finally started to feel that I have the ability to get at least some of the sounds inside my head out into reality with a quality and accuracy that is satisfying.

Such a hard question. I've said, in other places, that anything you hear is an influence, for better or worse. Tacky pop music, stupid ad jingles, movie soundtracks, and the marvellous analog special effects our reality comes equipped with - they all enter your head and become part of your music palette.

I think this question is likely more strictly about musical heroes - those artists and acts that you consciously try to absorb and understand, and who affect you deeply.

Going way back I'd have to list of bunch of gothic stuff, particularly Nephilim, Swans, Dead Can Dance, just for the general melancholia that I find creeps into most of what I write.

Then there'll be metal acts like Candlemass, My Dying Bride, Type O Negative and more recently Cult of Luna. Deep, roaring power flows through those kinds of tracks - it influences me.

More aggressive edges in what I produce may stem from the Industrial/EBM areas. I'd definitely Front 242 as an act that have had an effect on me. You can't listen to the same CD a gajillion times and not be influenced.

Some, perhaps, more commercial influences probably came from collecting a few discs from Leftfield, Lamb, Eat Static, Prodigy, I guess. None of these really make it back into the player all that often these days, it has to be said, but there was a time when they were all much loved.

Finally I guess there's some more experimental or just plain odd influences like "Godspeed You! Black Emperor", "Black Tape For A Blue Girl", "Soul Whirling Somewhere" and, again recently, the absolutely epic "Antarticans", which you really must check out!

Not fond of crowds, gotta be said and, hey, three's a crowd. My favorite spot would probably be somewhere far from anybody else.

Just a PC, a bunch of free software and a handful of expensive VSTs.