Labrinth

I remember my brother came home with a bass and played a blues solo on it. I just went insane for days afterwards learning that.

I try as much I can after every live performance to read all the comments my fans post on Facebook and Twitter, as this helps enormously for me to understand straight from fans what worked and what didn't.

I know this sounds weird, but I honestly believe music comes from the universe. Inspiration comes from the universe, and you drag it into your mind.

I have learned that while your putting your record together you can get so caught up in making what you want that you forget what you wanted in the first place.

I've made so many changes to my records because of the way the audience has reacted at the various festivals I've played - I've taken tracks back into the studio, stripped them bare, and built them back up again to create something entirely different.

My mother brought up nine children, in Hackney, and none of us are criminals, none of us in jail. Her strength made me who I am today.

I don't want to be someone that, when people look back, they think, 'Yeah, cool, he made us jump around for a bit in 2010.'

I think, as an artist, I wear a lot of different hats, and people have to join all of the dots.

Different cultures produce a different 'cool.' And your perception of 'cool' changes depending on where you are.

I definitely didn't wanna be a one-dimensional artist that you can just put into one box. Because, to me, we're all masters of certain energies, and we all create different colours.

I'm from Hackney, and it's an area that is not so pretty, and we have a different way of expressing ourselves than somebody from uptown that has lots of money.

My ethos is musical freedom: to create whatever I want.