I'm not angry, I'm not an angry person, but I do sometimes like playing with the perception of anger, as in pretending that I'm more angry than I actually am, and sometimes it works quite well.
Calvin Harris
There's only so much you can do with a male voice in dance music.
Right at the start, when I was about 13 or 14, I only had an Amiga 500 Plus running a bit of tracker software called OctaMED. My brother was big into his computers, and when he moved up to a proper PC, I took charge of the Amiga.
I know how to treat my voice to make it sound as good as it possibly can - which is still not that good.
Even if you have a big tune, live crowds can get sick of it. It's not just about the song but also the staying power and if people have connected with it in a certain way. I know that the tracks I put more emotion and depth into are the ones that have the staying power in clubs.
Growing up around British music, you realise how much depth there is to it... my stuff is different to the likes of Pitbull for that reason.
From the age of 14 to about 20, I bombarded record companies and DJs with my demos. I was desperate to get it out there. Most of the time, I got nothing back.
In Britain, you know there are people waiting to tear your stuff apart, so it's important for me to know that my music has subtleties and depth to it.
Growing up in Dumfries, I got no sun - I spent all my time in my room making records. When I came to America, it made me recognise the benefits of sunlight. Oh, and I also got a good haircut. I used to have a terrible haircut.
The thing is, any time anyone invades anyone on stage, the invader always looks really bad no matter what point they're proving - obviously that applies to myself too.
Sometimes, it's better to stop thinking and trust your instincts. That's what I used to do when I first started making music, but as time goes on, you can sometimes over-intellectualise things.
There are a lot of mindless moments in my tunes.
When I'm a bit sad, I often go for a drive in the country, quite fast with my music up.
I trade musical favours like cattle. I can't remember the last time I did a remix for actual money. For me, I try and get a good swap.
I have legendary massive breakfasts at hotels. I don't hold back. I'll get there at 7A.M. and I'll be the last out at 11 A.M., having gone up and down the buffet seven times.
I try and sit on the fence because as soon as you voice any kind of opinion, people begin to think you're an idiot.
To throw a shoe at a man in Dundee is the equivalent of a kiss on the cheek and an embrace in London. Dundee is a very different place; they have their own rules.
Reaching the height of 6 ft. 5 in.; I never expected to be that tall. I just shot up.
I'm not good at interviews, I'm not good at dancing, I'm not good at looking like I'm having fun. I never will be, I don't think. Unless I go to a life coach.
I'm not trying to be a celebrity, Justin Timberlake kinda guy.
I want to be the number one songwriter-producer guy of all time.
I suppose Spotify is a good thing. The ads are quite annoying, but a lot of people seem to like it and use it. I don't myself, but it seems like a good idea, and the labels are getting a huge amount of money off it, but the artists aren't, so that must be good for them... but not us.
I'd been sending out demos and CDs for years. I knew my stuff was good enough, but I was getting nowhere. Then, three people - my future manager and two publishers - happened to send one of my tracks to EMI publishing in the same week. All of a sudden, they were interested!
The trouble with making music as a job is that I have no outside interests. All I can do to wind down is go to sleep.
Since I was 14, I wanted to make music, but I think I would also have made a good policeman. When I was eight, I wanted to be one so I could tell people off.
