It started with 'the question' and ended with the 'list'. If you were about to go on tour and had to choose just eight tracks to put on your Walkman, what would they be and why?

This must be the largest selection of classical music we've had in The List: Nick says that fellow Chunger Jack's classical training helped get him into things non-rock. "We definitely use ideas when we're writing and recording," Nick said when we asked about the influence of classical stuff on their own material, "rather than let the ideas use us."

At List compilation time the band were "just about to become incredibly busy", with two weeks rehearsal on the cards, followed by a jaunt to the US of A for some TV and support gigs (around the 3000-5000 seater mark), and a return to blighty in mid-May to promote their next single, "Don't Let Go". Their LP, "Points On A Curve", should be out by that time too.

So what's it like having to do all this promotional stuff like the concoction of lists of eight great tracks? Is it enjoyable? "Yes and no," is Nick's diplomatic response. "I'm not that keen on speaking to the so-called 'intellectual' music press, that side of things I find a bit boring. They just don't seem to understand."

Symphonia

Luciano Berio

"This is probably my favourite piece at the moment: modern classical music, written in the 1960s, a lot of tension and supposed chaos, and things floating in and out of focus. It's written for orchestra, singers and sort of 'talking' – a lot of reciting. I suppose purgative is the best word, you really feel you've gone through it after you've listened to it. We've based our album title on another piece Berio wrote called 'Points On The Curve To Find...'"

Violin Concerto In D

Ludwig van Beethoven

"I love Beethoven and this is my favourite right now. It's an incredibly beautiful piece, as well as being heavy; it covers a wide range of feeling. I think it's one of the most beautiful orchestral pieces anywhere. Beethoven's melodies can be a bit dodgy, over-the-top, but in this they're quite delicate."

Symphony No 3

Ludwig van Beethoven

"I like this for un-musical as well as musical reasons: my French girlfriend inspired my complete interest in things French – I'm almost a complete Francophile now. 'Eroica' was dedicated to Napolean, but then Beethoven rubbed his name off the manuscript because Beethoven was totally pissed off when he declared himself emperor. I'm interested in that period of history, so there's all that association, plus it's a downright good bit of music. The melody is a bit facile, I s'pose, but I love it – it's brilliant if you don't mind that sort of thing – and there are, again, some delicate bits in there."

Symphony No 1

Johannes Brahms

"I haven't been familiar with Brahms that long. This starts off with an incredible wodge of strings. Apparently he was quite a modest bloke, and it took him something like 20 years to have the guts to make this piece public: you can hear that in the opening flourish, so angst-ridden, and yet so pure as well. Brilliant. Brahms is good for restating themes and motifs in a most disguised way; the more you get to know this the more you pick out strands running right through it. And he does it in quite a self-effacing way – definite music, and moving once you've got into it. It's absolute music, rather than music which expresses an idea."

Wozzeck

Alban Berg

"I've just managed to ponce this off CBS. It's an incredibly heavy opera, the story's quite depressing but moving as well. Berg was actually a student of Schoenberg but I think he's better in that he's not quite so academic about everything, there's a good feel to his music. I'm not particularly into technique for its own sake. Anyway, Berg really goes for it in this opera, and by the end of it you're completely blown out. A lot of opera's shocking, but when it works..."

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

David Byrne/Brian Eno

"This is my favourite rock album for the last couple of years. I love the idea of using a montage of different elements, voices off the radio and so on, and just building things up in the studio. Very much a studio album, but almost surreal in places – the juxtaposition between a Lebanese mountain singer and what sounds like a black American rhythm section is emotive and evocative."

I Am The Walrus

The Beatles

"Partly nostalgic, partly because they were downright good and wrote good songs. I like this for similar reasons to the Byrne/Eno, all those weird things going on, and it still sounds great now. Great song, good tune, and I love the end, specially where it all builds up. Who knows what they were up to in the studio? Chris Hughes, one of our producers, has got a tape of this with just the guitar, bass, drums and vocal, before they shoved the orchestra and all the other things on."

Heroes

David Bowie

"The whole album has that spirit of adventure and experimentation, it's like a matured 'Low'. I love all the tracks, but if I had to choose one it would be 'Heroes' itself. On that he's managed to mix a very interesting hit-and-miss technique with a good, melodic song and strong chord sequence. There's all sorts of weird sounds underneath providing the 'rhythm section', chugging things, and guitars weaving in and out, and his own vocal which goes through quite a range of emotions – by the end he's almost hysterical. It's really hard to mix those two elements: a good, strong song, and that seeming looseness, that 'let's have a go at this' feel. It seems to work here."