Artists Reveal Their Favourite Possessions

1
Grimes: My bear, Teddy.

Grimes: My bear, Teddy. “He’s my first possession; I’ve had him since the day I was born. He’s just a brown bear! Maybe like 10 inches tall. My dad’s friend – who was dying of cancer in hospital when I was born – gave it to me.”

2
Brian Fallon, The Gaslight Anthem: Eddie Vedder Photograph.

Brian Fallon, The Gaslight Anthem: Eddie Vedder Photograph. “My friend Danny Clinch, who’s a photographer, gave me a big, signed, numbered print of a photo he took of Eddie Vedder in Seattle. It’s hung in my writing room where I have posters of writers that inspire me. They’re all pointing at me. Tom Waits is like, ‘Don’t sell out’!”

3
Caroline Polachek, Chairlift: My camouflage jacket.

Caroline Polachek, Chairlift: My camouflage jacket. “I wear it everyday. It’s a hunting jacket for shooting pheasants in the woods. I’ve never been hunting though! I’m a vegetarian.”

Advertisement

4
Rou Reynolds, Enter Shikari: My laptop.

Rou Reynolds, Enter Shikari: My laptop. “When we were recording the last album ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’ in Thailand, my laptop fell onto a stone floor and the hard drive shattered. I was like, shit, shit, shit! I’ve got a side-project called JBM, and I lost all the tracks.”

5
Jonathan Pierce, The Drums: My Dog.

Jonathan Pierce, The Drums: My Dog.

Jonathan Pierce, The Drums: My Dog. “His name is Harry, and he’s a mutt. I found him at a shelter in Ohio. I’ve had him for about four years now. Throughout my life, I think I’ve been closer to dogs than I have to people. I’m sure that’s a problem, but I do get a lot of satisfaction out of being close to a dog.”

6
Mark Stoermer, The Killers: My Tarot card deck.

Mark Stoermer, The Killers: My Tarot card deck.

Mark Stoermer, The Killers: My Tarot card deck. “One of my good friends gave it to me as a birthday gift. [Filmmaker] Alejandro Jodorowsky has a couple of books I’ve read about the tarot and I use it as a personal consultation for advice. Not that it’s supposed to tell you the future, but I think it tells you about yourself if you read into the symbols.”

7
Gaspard Augé, Justice: A life-sized doll of ET.

Gaspard Augé, Justice: A life-sized doll of ET.

Gaspard Augé, Justice: A life-sized doll of ET. “I wasn’t attracted to ET the film so much, but for some reason I started this weird collection of badly-made ET toys: like some French bootlegs, and some which are so bad they’re basically just brown and small bits of plastic. The best one was a guy on eBay, who was selling a log which he claimed looked like ET.”

Advertisement

8
Regina Spektor: Photographs.

Regina Spektor: Photographs. “I have the hardest time getting rid of anything, but my photographs are really amazing because my dad is a photographer. He captured everything when I was growing up. We lived in Soviet Russia until I was nine, there were no brands of clothing, so it looks like it could have been the ‘20s.”

9
B-Real, Cypress Hill: My massive glass bong

B-Real, Cypress Hill: My massive glass bong “It’s called Excalibur. It stands about six foot four and it’s a very special bong – it’s expensive, too. It’s at our studio in California, encased in a trophy care right now – it doesn’t leave much. It gets used three or four times a year.”

10
J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.: 1958 Telecaster Guitar.

J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.: 1958 Telecaster Guitar.

J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.: 1958 Telecaster Guitar. “It’s the one I play the most when recording – the one I always seem to turn to. I got it in 1990. It was at a studio I was recording at and I asked the guy if he wanted to sell it. He said ‘I could never sell that guitar’ and a couple of months later he called saying, ‘OK, I’ll sell it…’”

11
Anna Calvi: My necklace.

Anna Calvi: My necklace. “I bought it in a market in Barcelona about five years ago. I always feel like I have to wear it when I play because it brings me good luck. It’s gold, and it’s got an intricate round medallion. It looks kind of like a shield. I don’t know why I think it’s a good luck charm, I just got attached to it, and it feels like it has history behind it.”

Advertisement

12
“Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes: Stetson Hat.

“Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes: Stetson Hat. “I have a Stetson that I never wear because I don’t wanna ruin it. So it’s in a box at home. Some friends of mine bought it to replace one that was ruined on tour, but it’s just really nice and so I have to keep it in the box ‘cos I don’t want it to get destroyed. I’m gonna wear it one day. A special occasion.”

13
Graham Coxon: My grandad’s special constabulary tin hat

Graham Coxon: My grandad’s special constabulary tin hat “I have a lot of junk that means a lot to me. My grandad’s tin hat from the war is one of my most treasured possessions. People were drafted in, like a special constable, you know, he was acting as a policeman during wartime, dashing about in Derby, during their version of the Blitz, which was pretty heavy as well, I’d imagine.”

14
Little Boots (Victoria Hesketh): Keyboard.

Little Boots (Victoria Hesketh): Keyboard.

Little Boots (Victoria Hesketh): Keyboard. “I’ve got this crappy old keyboard that I’ve had forever and wrote my first album on. It’s not very good, but it’s really sentimental to me. I got it when I was at uni. I used it at a lot of small gigs and it always used to break, so it’s kind of funny. If that thing could talk, it would have a lot of stories.”

15
Tom Cohen, SCUM: My rings.

Tom Cohen, SCUM: My rings. “All the rings I wear mean something to me, or were given to me by people at certain points of mylife. I love them, I’ve got three. I don’t have a favourite, they all mean a lot to me.”

16
Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys: My Yamaha synthesizer.

Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys: My Yamaha synthesizer. “It inspires melody! I wrote 18 songs in one month on that synthesizer. That was about five years ago – we used 12 of them on ‘That Lucky Old Sun’ and there are another six left over. Who knows what’s gonna happen to them now. I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any idea.”

17
Matt Helders, Arctic Monkeys: My motorbike.

Matt Helders, Arctic Monkeys: My motorbike.

Matt Helders, Arctic Monkeys: My motorbike. “It’s in England so I don’t get to see it or ride it often, because the weather is shit! I’ve got a Triumph, a British bike. It’s dark red, black, and cold. Three of the Arctic Monkeys have bikes and we’ve done a few country rides.”

Advertisement
Advertisement