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Different cultures produce a different 'cool.' And your perception of 'cool' changes depending on where you are.
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My ethos is musical freedom: to create whatever I want.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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You can't go up to girls and start talking about minor 7ths and expect to pull. It's not going to work.
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Everyone in my family has been in music - my cousins, my grandmother, my grandfather - so it's quite a big family tree.
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I don't ever think it's a good idea to try to recreate the success you've had before; it's all about chasing something fresh and new.
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I'm a hundred percent a rock n' roll guy.
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I've got perfectionist issues, as I can't seem to let tracks out the studio - it drives my manager nuts.
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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.
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I think, as an artist, I wear a lot of different hats, and people have to join all of the dots.
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I actually tried to learn the dictionary at one point. It didn't work; I only got through the first few pages.
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My main thing is I just want to share as much hope and happiness as possible for music. If I can share as many moments and help people believe in themselves... if I can do that, then I'll feel like my job is done.
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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.
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One thing I always really enjoyed about Quincy Jones' production technique was that there were so many layers to every song. Like, one week you'd hear a new trumpet-line, then the next week you'd hear - be hearing a new guitar-line.
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My fans are like, 'Lab does what he does,' which is really cool. If I came out with a Jack White rock tune tomorrow, people would be like, 'Yeah, cool man,' which is great.
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Branding your song is the worst thing you can ever do. That's turning your song into a product.
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I'm all for trying anything once; otherwise, you end up like David Guetta - reproducing the same formula over and over.
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You've got to live and die by your decisions.
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English urban artists were very used to making secondhand American music, and I thought that was boring.
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I think producing a record for other artists is almost like giving them advice, and I would say that it is easier to produce another artist than it is to produce yourself.
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When you make a record, I always imagine people dancing to it. If the chef thinks it tastes good, then there will be someone who ultimately believes the same thing.
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I want to be a little bit brave. I want to feel scared sometimes. That's what's going to change the music business, if we have that kind of attitude.