We had a heroic attitude to artistic freedom, and we thought normal contracts were a bit vulgar - somehow not punk. But that was the whole point - we weren't a regular record label.
I was always taught by punk to think for yourself and to question authority. That's what I've always tried to do.
There is something familial about punk. There is something positive. Even though some punk is destructive, nihilistic, explosive.
By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.
Back in the early 1980s when rappers couldn't perform in the fancy venues because the police were too racist and scared, it was the punk venues letting them in to perform.
Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.
I'm an odd mixture. I'm a sort of Geordie punk who started in classical theatre. It means nobody ever knows quite where to put me, but I like that.
I can't think of another artist who has a fan base as diverse, in that the ladies in their 70s at the 4-H club have the same collection of Johnny Cash records as the punk on the street in Amsterdam.
The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point.
My whole back's tattooed. I just wanted a twist. I was always in punk bands when I was little... I think that's where the tie comes from.