What song makes you feel nostalgic for a time you never lived through?

My Dad was a folk music fan, he played guitar and banjo with my Uncle Phil in a band for a while, once appearing on the same bill as The Corries (the Flower of Scotland guys). My parents loved music, it was an ever present in my life.

The Mamas and Papas album was (on tape at least) on frequent rotation, and this song always makes me wonder what life would've been like back then, the early 60s, the California sunshine, in the throes of the hippy movement, love and peace.

What's your go-to song for getting ready in the morning?

I don’t think I have such a song. Mornings are bleary eyed stumbles for caffeine, as quietly as possible so as not to wake my son.

However if I am up early to exercise then I need something upbeat to get me going, and I find the repetition of You Can Do It quickly moves my mood to where I need it to be.

Share a song that sounds like your favorite weather.

Obvious choice today. Here’s why

Share a song that captures the moment when seasons change.

Just as the New Year can herald new beginnings, I think the change of season brings a softer shift of things. Winter to Spring brings hope as the world brightens and green shoots start to appear, Spring to Summer relaxes us into the warmth and sunshine, Summer to Autumn signals the relief of heat and cool breeze that carries red golden leaves, Autumn to Winter closes everything down again as we hunker down together to get through until Spring arrives.

And change is opportunity, and this song speaks of all the conflicts we all go through internally as we navigate through those seasons, existing as we do alongside horror and beauty through the year.

What song makes you feel like you're floating?

That dreamy voice, the ethereal melodies, gentle strings, and that sense of being slightly apart from everything. Lost in a world of possibilities but with a destination in mind. Slowly, eventually. And on arrival everything seems lighter, the world more viable.

One of those tracks that deserves headphones, sunshine, and 5 mins of sitting still whilst the wind and the song breezes over you.

What's your favorite song about growing up?

I was once caught drawing, with mud, on the school wall. We’d arrived to find actual graffiti —a badly drawn stick figure of a woman, including circular boobs— and I’d been dared to add to it.

There I was, mud covered stick in hand, reaching up to scratch a man next to her —the innocence of the 8 year old boy— when a teacher walked round the corner.

Admittedly it’s a bit of a stretch from that to “…writing something nasty on the wall” but this song by Stevie Wonder captures those childhood moments so well. Life on the edge, or so we thought.

I’m not sure I want those days back, but that sense of a carefree, responsibility free, life would be nice now and then for sure.

Share a song that makes time feel like it's standing still.

Such a simple song yet it always grabs me. I'm a huge fan of Kate Bush, her artistic leanings and that unique voice are all dampened down in this beautiful song.

This isn't so much about time standing still, more that it always makes me pause whatever I'm doing to let those rolling piano melodies soothe my soul.

I first came across this track via the Hue & Cry cover.

What song would you dedicate to your younger self?

I likely wouldn't have listened, what young person listens to some as old and ancient as me!

But if I could sit myself down, and ask for a moment of patience and attention, I'd play this.

Even as a young man I had a sense of there being two sides to most things, even in my darkest moments I could feel something else there. Too quick to profess love, too eager and impatient to be part of something other than just my own self.

I think this song, hopefully, would help my younger self understand the need to take their time and be sure of themselves. Let them see that all the fears and tears they will suffer through will make them a better person, or at least a stronger one, and one who is more aware of his own sense of self than I would've been if I hadn't taken some hard and scary steps.

What's a song that feels like magic every time you hear it?

Magic in terms of immediately makes me smile. Magic in terms of uplifts my soul with a quality that is as easy as it is to describe (upbeat pop music with gorgeous soaring melody) as it is to quantify.

Why does this song feel like magic to me? Because it's one night, one perfect night, nights from my youth where every pub you entered you found more of your friends. The mistakes, the laughter, the nonsense, all of it bubbling into one glorious spell of an inescapable youth.

And all it takes is those repeated piano chords.

I have no idea why this song grabs me makes me smile and soar and laugh and dance, but then isn't that the point of magic?

Share a song that makes you want to call an old friend.

I have a fairly small circle of close friends. We used to go to a lot of gigs together and I can’t recall which of us discovered this band but we saw them live many times, and whenever this song pops up I always think of him.