Johnny Lynch records as Pictish Trail and runs Lost Map Records from his home on the Isle of Eigg. To celebrate the label’s 10th anniversary, a Lost Map supergroup has been formed – Lost Map Presents Weird Wave. An album of the same name was released on October 6 and the self-styled “psychedelic eclectic collective” will perform at Glasgow’s The Great Western festival in November. 

What’s the last book you read?
I’ve just finished an audiobook entitled Is This OK?, by former music journalist turned comedy writer, Harriet Gibsone. It’s an auto-biographical account of relationships on the internet; teenage fumblings on MSN Messenger, creating the perfect profile pic on MySpace, intensely in-depth search-engine dives on exes, forming “para-social” relationships with pop stars and Instagram celebs, to stalking a random stranger on a train. 

Irvine Welsh or Robert Louis Stevenson?
David Keenan.

What’s your favourite film?
Fargo, by the Coen Brothers. It’s so dark, but so funny. The accents, the pretence that it was based on true events, the weaselly villains. There’s so much that’s just left hanging, too. We never see Frances McDormand’s character give birth, we never see what happens with the hidden money. You don’t get that in other people’s films.

What’s the last film you saw in a cinema?
I’ve not been in years. Sadly, I think it might have been a Shaun The Sheep movie: Farmageddon, while on a trip to the mainland with my son. He’d never been to a cinema before. He’d never even seen seats that fold – he was under the impression you had to stand for the duration, occasionally leaning on the arm-rests. There were maybe only 10 people in the cinema that day, but he was the only child. I kept thinking, ‘Why are grown-adult couples going to the cinema to watch Farmageddon?’.


Recommend a TV box-set … 
Just watched Beef on Netflix. Takes a few episodes to get its groove, but once it does, it’s fantastic – the dialogue, especially. So funny. And it’s one of the few series I’ve seen that actually has a satisfying ending.

What music are you currently listening to a lot and what do you like about it?
I’m constantly listening to music we release on Lost Map, so my instinct is to plug all our artists. I just heard that new album by Tirzah, though, which really grabbed me. Mica Levi’s hypnotic production has been a constant inspiration since the Micachu days, and Tirzah’s vocals have such a unique sense of intimacy about them – it’s such a sensual record. 

Vinyl or MP3?
CD, please.

What has been your most formative cultural experience?
Being nine years old, and discovering Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out on Channel 4. I couldn’t believe a show like that existed. The same two guys playing all of the characters, the whole DIY nature of it, the daftness of it. It was joyous, and remains my biggest inspiration. The stupid in-jokes and wordplay you have with your friends, the stuff that actually makes you laugh, can make others laugh, too – that was a huge realisation. The principle carries over to music, and other art forms: if you stay true to doing what you like, creating the work for yourself, in your own voice, then it’ll resonate more with the audience that discovers it for themselves.

Recommend a novel … 
Josie Long’s collection of short stories, Because I Don’t Know What You Mean And What You Don’t, completely stopped me in my tracks. Each story is told in the first-person, and carries with it a sense of immediacy – sort of like the dramatic monologues in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (which I also really love), but with all the anxiety and heightened stress of modern life. I’d love to see performances of these stories.

Blur or Oasis?
I sort of want to say Blur, but my Catholic guilt says Oasis. Amen.

What’s your go-to YouTube video?
I’m obsessed with No More Jockeys, at the moment. It’s become part of my lunchtime ritual. I’m still catching up with episodes – it’s a game conducted via video chat, between comedians Alex Horne, Mark Watson and Tim Key. They started it over lock-down, but I only became aware of it just over a year ago. I won’t explain the game, you should just watch it – the joy of it is the way they lovingly tease one another. They have such a beautiful friendship.

Tetris or Call Of Duty?
Goldeneye on the N64.

What was the most memorable recent theatre show you saw?
I caught Marjolein Robertson’s new stand-up show, Marj, at The Stand, during the Fringe which I loved. She’s a Shetlander with such an inventive style. Really endearing with the daftest of call-backs, then sharply lewd and devastatingly emotional. Brilliant.

Who’s your favourite comedian?
Vic Reeves. Everything he makes is art. There’s genuinely no-one else like him. He seems to exist completely outwith the comedy world. Whenever you see him on a panel show with other comedians, it doesn’t really make sense. The only person he makes sense with is Bob Mortimer, and that’s what makes him so great. 

What’s your favourite song?
Crap Kraft Dinner by Hot Chip. It gives me all of the feelings. The way it builds – from an elegiac Casiotone and drum machine opening, to a blissed out sax-wailing tropical-pop coda – always gets me emotional. And dancing.

Recommend an album … 
Resort by Tuff Love is the best collection of songs that Scotland has produced in the past 10 years. In terms of songwriting, I don’t think anything else comes close. I’m being flippant, now, because I’m realising that I’m hopeless at describing why I like something. I love it because I don’t know why. Great music is a beautiful mystery.

Who was the second best James Bond?
There’s only one. Pierce.