Bonobo

“I think you haven't tried enough sometimes unless you're suffering a bit.”

“I don't really write music in the traditional sense of chorus, verse. It's more experimental sounding. The process comes from an experimentation with noise.”

“Ninja has definitely kind of changed its identity since it first started out. Ninja back in the day was always turntables and jazz and sampling and electronica. But over time, it's become quite diverse and open to songwriting in a variety of forms.”

“Outlier' came together pretty quickly. There's no real telling why that happens, sometimes the thing is just more intricate and takes longer you know, there's actual labour to be done in terms of sound design whereas other things are much freer.”

“You can't live in the times that you live in and be exposed to all the new music that's happening, ignore it all, and carry on doing the same stuff as you were ten years ago.”

“Ninja was able to survive its own hype and become a very strong label.”

“Towards the end of touring 'The North Borders' I had a lot of personal stuff going on - family members who had died - and I was feeling displaced.”

“Some people like music to be far more immediate and make you dance straight away. But I like to engage with it on a different level and for it to have that human element where it moves you in an emotive way.”

“When DJing works and the room is with you then it's one of the most enjoyable things you can do.”

“If something is done really well then the question of live vs. DJ vs. instruments vs. drum machines doesn't matter - it's all just about taste, really.”

“Every record I've made, I've mixed and engineered at home.”

“I've never been one of those musicians to differentiate between acoustic and electronic sounds. I just see it all as sound sources to be used. This translates into my live shows as well.”

“My records are not informed by whether the music is going to work live. I just kind of make the music I want to make and worry about how to deconstruct it for a band after.”

“Sometimes it's a discipline to try and not sound like myself.”

“You know, the one thing I've learnt or value from back in the day is the restraint and discipline you get when you're limited by technology and equipment.”

“I always have trouble recording drums and double bass.”

“I think nostalgia is kind of dangerous in music.”

“I respond to creativity well when I'm outside and reacting to experiences, not inside a studio.”

“I got to Brighton in the late 90s and discovered samplers. Suddenly, I could be my own band with a guitar and sampler, getting my drums in charity shop records. It was better than bashing around in someone's basement, trying to compromise ideas.”

“I do really long DJ sets - I play for five or six hours sometimes - but the live shows are a bit more compact. The arch of how to tell a story, where the energy is, where you have peaks and drops, where things go up and things come down, that's all being informed by DJ-ing.”