Man like Mike.

"I'd listen to Mike Skinner read the phone book over a beat."

I saw someone say on Instagram. Love the analogue phone book reference. But the comment speaks to something bigger.

Skinner recorded the vocals for Original Pirate Material inside an emptied-out wardrobe in his Brixton bedroom – an improvised sound booth. A laptop, duvets and some Post-it notes.

I relate to this. I founded my first company in an upstairs flat in Brixton, taking turns (comical, in hindsight) with my co-founder on an iMac G3. The turquoise one that saved Apple, seeing as you asked.

The most ordinary things, looked at properly, are sometimes the most enthralling.

There's an amazing scene in the Springsteen film where he gets pissed off in the studio because the producer is ruining his original home recording. The rough version was the magic. High production, all the gear, made his music worse.

The dominant lie: better tools = better creative work. The truth: often constraint IS the creative gift.

And like so many great artists, Skinner tucks right into the everyday nonsense we think about, deal with – BUT delivers it in an effortlessly creative way.

So much soul.

Man like Mike.