Mura Masa

“At a young age, I was introduced to Joni Mitchell by my mum. My dad was into progressive rock.”

“SoundCloud was my first break I guess. I got a little bit of a following.That whole bedroom producer genre was kind of kicking itself into gear, and SoundCloud was becoming more of a hub for producers at the time.”

“The way streaming is going, this movement in the market of music would suggest that doing a long-form project, especially for a new artist like me - someone who relies on a lot of digital following - it would make more sense for me to release the songs individually.”

“Maybe I'm too selfish to just be a producer. Also, I feel like I have something to say that's interesting or unique.”

“If you grew up in London's East End you'd probably be inclined to be into something like grime music. But if you're removed from it, like in Guernsey, you can have a wider set of influences, and you're not tied down to any genre or any scene. I think that affects my sound, for sure.”

“I'm a child of the internet.”

“Being from a background of dance music and what you might call club music or electronic music, I think something that gets neglected in that scene is personal vulnerability.”

“I grew up on a tiny island called Guernsey, very small population, very isolated culturally but very beautiful and serene.”

“I started playing violin when I was about five years old and I learned to read a little bit of music, but that's all been long, long forgotten! I actually quit violin to teach myself guitar and just went from there.”

“I think everybody had this weird mix of pubescent rage and sadness, and just pure mania and joy. It's a really weird time.”

“I didn't want to just be making music randomly and not have any direction.”

“After the first album, I felt like I needed to one up myself - get even bigger features - and I spent six months thinking about that and not making any music.”

“I definitely don't want to appropriate... not in an 'overly PC' way though.”

“When you meet your idols, I'm not one of those people - like if I saw Prince on the street, I wouldn't say anything. Because I'd want him to meet me. You want to meet people on the right terms or if there's a reason for you to meet.”

“If you're not changing what you're doing and exploring different parts of your musical output, I think you're slowly dying.”

“All punk music is is rebellion, going against the grain. It takes different forms. Sometimes it's a band throwing their instruments around or making really violent and noisy sounds, but it doesn't have to take that sonic form. It can take more of an energy.”

“When things socially and politically get difficult, punk music suddenly comes back again, and there's just a really healthy pivot away from music that's not humanly understandable.”

“I was hedging my bets with university. I always wanted to do music, it was just about waiting for the point when I could confidently say 'okay, I reckon there's enough momentum behind this thing to sustain myself.'”

“The first time I played at Green Door Store in Brighton, which is under the train station. It was sold out by 150 people.”

“I was at Sussex University studying English lit and philosophy, I had two essays due in and three seminars that day, and at the same time I was messaging my manager because I'd just started to put together the pieces of like, 'Wow. I really don't want to be doing any essays anymore. Why don't I just give this music thing a go?'”