Mainly I was able to perform with music - I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off.
'Vagabond' is about owning where I come from, understanding the real power music had to transport myself with, whether that's busking in Europe or getting number ones.
I'm quite arty. I didn't know whether to become an artist or musician but I realised I could paint with music. All my songs have colours.
I hate that if you do one style of music or become really well known for that one song, that everything that comes after has to fit that mold.
When I saw the movie, I said, I wish I had heard the music. I would have ridden the horse differently.
I don't listen to music when designing. We create in silence. I go through a torturous process because everything has to be precise and right.
I have very eclectic taste in music, but when it comes to going to concerts, I like going to rock concerts.
Textures apply to everything I do. Even within my music, I like smooth things, and then hard and fluffy things, all giving them their place to shine.
It takes a lot of people hours to make music because they focus so much on one thing. I just do it, and I make something you can just vibe to.
Music to me is so internal. It's physical and it's emotional. Whereas fashion is so much about the external that it's almost like a break. It's not inner turmoil. It's total escapism.
Most comics worship music on some level. It's more rock-n-roll to get up there for an hour and make people laugh.
I am certain that most composers today would consider today's music to be rich, not to say confusing, in its enormous diversity of styles, technical procedures, and systems of esthetics.
I grew up with Al Jarreau. We had a band together and worked these places for three years when neither one of us knew we could make a living doing music.
The BBC were not playing the music that was happening on the street so we did an independent production because we knew we had an audience. Then we licensed the album to EMI.
I didn't have a lot of overtly political songs. I think it was more the actions of the group that were threatening to the authorities, and also our political philosophies apart from the music.
The first song that made me interested in music was 'Oh, Pretty Woman' by Roy Orbison. It was the guitar intro, that riff, that I really liked and made me listen in a different way.
I write to music, and Nina Simone is always on my playlist to write to. I mean, she's inspiring. She's truthful and real and raw.
Mostly I've never let record companies become involved with my music, which was a very smart thing that my first manager Dave Robinson did, to keep them out of it.
There's something so wonderful about writing in rhyme where it isn't just the meaning of the words, it's the music to the words and the shape and the sound.
As a producer, I'm trying to challenge myself to just make something that is of a professional quality - not necessarily pop music, but maybe in the sense that Nine Inch Nails is professional quality.
No one likes to work for free. To copy an artist's work and download it free is stealing. It's hard work writing and recording music, and it's morally wrong to steal it.
