Labrinth Quotes

Branding your song is the worst thing you can ever do. That’s turning your song into a product.

My grandad’s a gospel singer, and his children were singers, too. But I don’t believe in God in the same way… not religion; it breaks us up too much. The same with musical styles – it breaks people up. I believe they are all one thing – why not put them together?

I grew up not really having a father figure, and it didn’t bother me, because he wasn’t there in the first place. But then he started other families, and I was jealous. It was like he was happy without our family.

English urban artists were very used to making secondhand American music, and I thought that was boring.

I’m a hundred percent a rock n’ roll guy.

You can make what you want. People care about what the artist has to say, what the sound is, and how it affects them.

I never called myself an urban artist, but that’s what I was classed as, and I almost tried to live up to the name instead of who I really was.

Everyone in my family has been in music – my cousins, my grandmother, my grandfather – so it’s quite a big family tree.

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.

When I listen to a Coldplay record, you’re gonna hear an indie band, and you know that’s what you’re gonna get from Coldplay. With myself, I’m not sure it’s the same.

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.

I actually tried to learn the dictionary at one point. It didn’t work; I only got through the first few pages.

I’m all for trying anything once; otherwise, you end up like David Guetta – reproducing the same formula over and over.

I’m a perfectionist, and to actually finish something is good for me.

I think, as an artist, I wear a lot of different hats, and people have to join all of the dots.

I really enjoy ‘festival life,’ as it were, and I love the reactions when I bring out my guitar on stage. The crowd are always a bit like, ‘What the hell is this urban guy doing with a guitar,’ and that’s what I love – the shock element of it all!

Of course, success takes you where your character can’t sustain you.

Urban is not actually my world. It was me trying something out, basically. I come from a gospel background.

I got into music through just being inspired by my brother and sisters. They all sing, play instruments and write – and they’re very good at it.

I’m a musical geek. It’s like there’s this big, wild universe in my head, and I love to express it.

I have learned that while your putting your record together you can get so caught up in making what you want that you forget what you wanted in the first place.

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.

You’ve got to live and die by your decisions.

I need to make money, but I don’t want to be another guy selling his McDonald‘s to the pop market.

I remember my brother came home with a bass and played a blues solo on it. I just went insane for days afterwards learning that.

I don’t want to be someone that, when people look back, they think, ‘Yeah, cool, he made us jump around for a bit in 2010.’

I definitely didn’t wanna be a one-dimensional artist that you can just put into one box. Because, to me, we’re all masters of certain energies, and we all create different colours.

Those that know me know that I’m not 100% in love with commercial pop music. It’s not my preferred genre – I don’t do squeaky clean pop.

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.

You can’t go up to girls and start talking about minor 7ths and expect to pull. It’s not going to work.

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.

Different cultures produce a different ‘cool.’ And your perception of ‘cool’ changes depending on where you are.

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.

You get so close to your own music that you can’t see the beauty in it. I had to learn to let go. It’s good to be less precious.

My mother brought up nine children, in Hackney, and none of us are criminals, none of us in jail. Her strength made me who I am today.