Songwriting Habits - What's your Inspiration?

Who inspires you to create music? What artist or band writes songs that really connect with you. What  is it about some songs that gives you a sense of something so that you have to listen to it over and over again? Is it that particular sound that the guitarist is making that you really love? Or is it those lines in a certain verse of a song that really resonates with you?

For me, I love the band U2. The sounds from the electric guitar of The Edge playing, and the words of Bono. Like in the song I still haven't found what I'm looking for. That endless pursuit of happiness is reflected in the words with the constant pulse of the bass guitar.

Just recently, I have also been listening to Tokio Meyres. He is a pianist/sequencer who won last years Britain's Got Talent. His combination of piano performance, together with the looping and sequencing of musical sounds has set me on a journey of playing with musical ideas using loops and playback. And that really is exciting. Just playing with endless combinations of musical ideas with an electronic feel is really satisfying.

What about you? Who inspires you? What sounds do you like? What songs inspire you?