Labrinth

I need to make money, but I don't want to be another guy selling his McDonald's to the pop market.

I don't see categories; I don't see styles - l see them all gelled together. And it was gospel that definitely helped me to do that.

I never called myself an urban artist, but that's what I was classed as, and I almost tried to live up to the name instead of who I really was.

English urban artists were very used to making secondhand American music, and I thought that was boring.

It's a lot easier producing for people or being in the background, and they can take all the fire from the front. But in order to express the ideas that I have without any kind of contamination, I thought it would be a cool thing to be out front.

I have to be honest: I think production is mad - exciting - because, of course, you're creating the record. When you're a singer, you're just singing. Creating the music, directing, and seeing where it's gonna go in production is very, very exciting.

I got into music through just being inspired by my brother and sisters. They all sing, play instruments and write - and they're very good at it.

I'm a musical geek. It's like there's this big, wild universe in my head, and I love to express it.

I really enjoy 'festival life,' as it were, and I love the reactions when I bring out my guitar on stage. The crowd are always a bit like, 'What the hell is this urban guy doing with a guitar,' and that's what I love - the shock element of it all!

When I was younger, I'd be in the studio three days straight to get something right, and my manager would be like, 'Go home!' Even now, I still sleep in the studio sometimes, but I can't do it quite as often. I've got gigs; I can't have my hobo beard! But if you love what you're doing, you can't stop. It's obsessive.

Those that know me know that I'm not 100% in love with commercial pop music. It's not my preferred genre - I don't do squeaky clean pop.

My brothers came home with country, jazz, everything... it was always very normal to me to make any type of music. It was possible to fuse all the sounds, so it never sounded confusing to me to mix jazz and dubstep.