Conspiracies, chiller films and children: Pablo's Dan Watts on his creative references

In rank order, here are the three things that inspire my creative taste:

Freddie Mercury

As a relatively anti-social child, watching FM shift from introvert to extrovert was like watching a real-life Cringer to Battle Cat. From barely speaking and worrying about his teeth, to commanding 100,000 people with the voice of the gods through song, shows the ultimate power of creativity. It’s also why I sometimes take my top off and strut around the boardroom table.

Shit horror films

Escapism through ridiculous ideas with gore and disorder on a budget. Creativity in a nutshell. You could say spending Friday nights on your laptop churning through the very worst Amazon Prime Video has to offer is a tragic waste of life, but my mind and brain just loves the dark and bizarre nature of it all. No? Just me?

My kids

Just joking.

Conspiracy theorists

The moon landing was shot by Stanley Kubrick. Seriously, he threaded clues throughout The Shining. Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike (that also…er…happened to be exceptional at singing and writing genre defining songs). The Earth is flat - just look at the horizon you morons. Willem Defoe is half reptile due to an experiment at Area 51 (I made that one up). The creative brain loves piecing together novel ideas out of the unknown, and conspiracy theorists do that with such flair. It’s all hilarious nonsense but you must hand it to them and their out-of-the-box ways of looking at the world. I love it.

Dan Watts is executive creative director at Pablo London.