Jacob Collier

“I was sort of brought up to sing from the age of two or three I was definitely giving it a go.”

“I'm a firm believer that embracing the imperfections of making music is so much of what makes something groove. Getting rid of these imperfections runs the risk of removing a lot of the magic that makes this music really special, and diminishes music's ability to connect with us as human beings. We are all imperfect, after all.”

“I've always wanted to keep my own personal creative space, and do everything myself.”

“I suppose technically I could say I'm based in jazz, just because it's the school of thought that I've been encouraging myself to operate within.”

“You always have those moments of standing outside your own life and thinking, 'This is kind of bizarre and quite wonderful.' And I think those moments always catch you off guard.”

“Really, I was brought up with music as a second language. My mother was extremely encouraging of the sensitivities of my brain. It was this sense of curiosity but never pressure.”

“It's hard to say that one way of doing things is the best for everybody all the time.”

“Parents write to me, or come up to me after shows and ask me 'How can we get our children to be as excited as you obviously were as a child?' It's not necessarily what they want to hear when I say, 'Don't make them practise!'”

“The world of Stevie Wonder - in particular, the kind of overflowing joy that exists in every single thing I've ever heard him do, every note he sings - that is so deeply inspiring to me in every way.”

“Having an idea is easy, courting one can be difficult.”

“Music is like cooking for me: you mix the ingredients together in one big pan and see how they end up. Through experimenting, you find what you really like and stick with it.”

“I'm a firm believer in the saying that goes, 'If you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans,' kind of approach.”

“You can't make music on your own for your whole life.”

“There's an amazing power that music has, and it definitely had its power over me as a boy. I just saw fit to keep exploring it.”

“There are a whole bunch of instruments I'd like to build.”

“The way my brain works, it created me thirsty. From the off, I was a sponge for information that had emotional connotations, I think that was it. I was brought up to see the world as emotional, and anything that I could get my hands on that helped me explore that emotional stuff, I was fascinated by.”

“Making music with other people feeds spontaneity, and lends ideas to your solo work.”

“Music is one whole force. And I think the Proms have always represented very clearly that music is a universal language, one that everyone can speak. I've just followed my goosebumps in every direction and have found a recipe for what my music feels and sounds like.”

“It was a challenge with 'In My Room,' because I was the only person in that room making the record, to maintain perspective.”

“So the language of musical harmony is an absolutely extraordinary one. It's a way of navigating one's emotional frameworks, but without the need to put things into words, and I think that, as with many other languages, it doesn't matter how much you know about a language.”