Tom Baker is a recent graduate currently writing about music for This Is Fake DIY and the 405
What was the first song you ever bought?
North & South – I'm a Man Not a Boy
I wish I could say that my first purchase was of a Pavement 7in or something but, nope, the first single I bought with my own money (on cassette!) was I'm a Man Not a Boy by North & South, a little-remembered and even less missed 90s boy band in the hi-NRG Euro pop style of the time. It was something of a weird gender-reversal of Britney Spears' I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, and no doubt responsible for putting me off pop for many years.
What song always gets you dancing?
Jet – Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
If I had a pound for the amount of times I've mistaken the opening bars to this song for the Jam's A Town Called Malice, I'd have more pounds than I do right now. The worst part is when people assume that my enthusiastic reaction means I really, really like Jet.
What song takes you back to your childhood?
Was (Not Was) – Walk the Dinosaur
When I was in primary school, before my ill-fated first single purchase, all my music came from either The Jungle Book soundtrack or mixtapes made by my dear father, usually made up of not-so-guilty pleasures and one-hit wonders from the decade prior to my birth. Still a great, and totally nonsensical, pop song; Don Was could teach Crazy Frog a thing or two.
What is your perfect love song?
Sparky Deathcap – Winter City Ghosts
This lovely little ditty about a couple wandering the snow-flecked streets of York with hands in their pockets to keep warm strikes a chord with me and my girlfriend, having experienced a similar wandering early in our relationship. Sparky is better known as Rob Taylor, now a member of Los Campesinos!, and his solo stuff is all similarly brilliant and intimate. Nice lo-fi feel, too, a bit like a Mancunian Phil Elvrum.
What song would you want at your funeral?
The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize??
It's such a bizarrely upbeat song about death, but I guess the Flaming Lips don't "do" normal. It's about how it's important to accept death as a part of life, and to make the most of the time we have. It's an absurdist funeral song, basically. And it'd be funny to hear the Flaming Lips in a church.
Time for the encore. One last song that makes you, you
Weezer – In the Garage
You know how people talk about how Spider-Man is so many kids' favourite superhero because they can relate to his awkward, socially inept dorkiness? Weezer were the musical equivalent for me. At least, for the first two albums. They made me realise that not only was every rock star a self-assured super cool dude. This song is the epitome of their shtick and chock full of nerdy references, which I very much enjoyed, being a big comic book fan/geek. Not sure I'm down with the Kiss worship, mind.
• Listen to Tom's six songs and join in the project by telling us which songs mean the to most to you at sixsongsof.me.