A very bland eleven-year-old, playing computer games. I went to a local primary school but I wasn't anything special or anything insanely interesting. I didn't have a crazy personality. I was somewhat book smart, but I wasn't hanging off the teacher, nor was I messing up in class. I wasn't doing much to disrupt anything. I was just there, existing.

Santan Dave

The biggest lesson that I've learnt is that things can change so quickly, never get used to one thing because everything can flip on it's head.

Santan Dave

Change Very Used

Just be thankful for what you have in the moment, but most importantly, work hard. The things that you work hard on have a lot of impact.

Santan Dave

Work Thankful Mom

I think it's crucial to go out and explain to people who you are and where you come from, your hardships - that's the kind of stuff I connect to.

Santan Dave

Your You Who

I'm always looking forward and trying to improve.

Santan Dave

War Yin Ways

A lot of people devote their lives to me and what I do. It means the most to be able to repay that faith.

Santan Dave

Faith Vote T

I think we internalise a great deal. Music can draw that stuff out of even the hardest person.

Santan Dave

Music Great Us

I don't think that one moment in people's life should define them. Within reason: I emphasise that.

Santan Dave

Mom Men Life

I've always like 'Dragonball Z' and 'Naruto,' that kind of drawing. My older brother draws so he was always drawing 'Dragonball Z' characters and so I got into it from there.

Santan Dave

Wing Win Ways

I learnt what I am not good at: listening, staying focused, turning up on time, following orders... I realised that I was going to have to pull off something special, something different.

Santan Dave

Time Good Yin

I really enjoy Lana Del Rey, and Pink Floyd are amazing.

Santan Dave

Amazing Really Real

We're all just humans at the end of the day.

Santan Dave

Us T Man

Where I'm from, if you can't see who and what is good for you and who is bad for you, you could end up with the wrong friends, in places where you don't need to be, with people that you didn't need to bring into your house, giving your trust to those who could turn on you.

Santan Dave

Trust Good Your

I started my first year at college on May 10 2015, and dropped my first video, 'Black Box' on the same day, it's pretty weird. I'm studying Philosophy and Ethics, Law and Music. Ethics helps a lot with music. Philosophy gives you a great perspective on things; it makes you think deeper about what you're saying.

Santan Dave

Music Great Art

I couldn't care less about criticism.

Santan Dave

Car T Out

Black is confusing. Where does the line start and stop with what is black and what isn't black? People that are mixed-race, or, imagine being from Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, people might say you're black but your features are so non-black, like you've got straight hair, you've got like a sharper nose, or such.

Santan Dave

Art Your You

Prison hosts a lot of normal people, a lot of family men who were caught in a tight situation or in a dark place.

Santan Dave

Men Family Who

That's why the Kanye Wests and the Drakes are just in a different league, because they have the ability to be vulnerable and open.

Santan Dave

Why West Vulnerable

I like making music when no one's really there, so it's just you and yourself: you're more free.

Santan Dave

Music Yourself Yours

I'm not really good in public spaces, I'm not really good with people, I'm not really good at a lot of things.

Santan Dave

Space Good Wit

I just can't belong to a genre, because I don't know what I would want it to be.

Santan Dave

Would Want Use

Grime is its own sound. There's a lot more to it. It's like a sound, culture, style - the way that they dress and speak.

Santan Dave

Sometimes I sit down and I think 'Do I regret this? Do I regret that?' And I feel like everything makes this snowball effect, you know? If you regret something, it's good because it just means that it's something that's affected you enough for you to stop and think... There's a reason that everything happens.

Santan Dave

I wish I could make myself more riveting but I'm quite standard, as the name suggests.

Santan Dave

A very bland eleven-year-old, playing computer games. I went to a local primary school but I wasn't anything special or anything insanely interesting. I didn't have a crazy personality. I was somewhat book smart, but I wasn't hanging off the teacher, nor was I messing up in class. I wasn't doing much to disrupt anything. I was just there, existing.

Santan Dave

Psychodrama' is a form of therapy and it is just expressing how you feel in whatever way is the most creative to you. Some people act it out, some people sing it out, people find their own different ways.

Santan Dave

When it gets to that time to tell your mum that you're not going to university, which has been her grand plan for you for the last 18 years, all of a sudden 700,000 YouTube views mean absolutely nothing.

Santan Dave

I like soundtracks. I love Hans Zimmer, the score for 'The Dark Knight Rises' is one of my favourites. I also like 'Man of Steel,' 'Inception,' 'Interstellar,' 'Braveheart,' 'Transformers' - Steve Jablonsky with 'Arrival to Earth.' 'Schindler's List' too, that's beautiful.

Santan Dave

The moment I started learning to play the piano it changed my whole dynamic with music and with school. Suddenly I had a reason to be there, or at least at my music lessons; it just took hold of me.

Santan Dave

As a human, I'd say I'm pretty intermediate.

Santan Dave

I was drawing before I did music, but me, I'm a dilettante. I jump into everything until I find one thing that I enjoy more than others. Rap was something that was always there because my brother used to rap - piano and musical instruments is something I learnt on the way.

Santan Dave

Rap, for me, I go at any tempo and any sound of beat and incorporate melody as well.

Santan Dave

I've always listened to different styles of music to make sure I'm balanced. I feel like if you only listen to your type of music you can never go outside of it.

Santan Dave

There was a sort of chain in school. I wasn't, like, mad at the top, but I wasn't right at the bottom, either.

Santan Dave

The piano is an instrument I've always loved and so I taught myself. As a rapper, who wants to produce more, being able to play by ear helps a lot because I know where I want an instrument to turn or how I want it to sound without having to do too much work.

Santan Dave

I'm not a grime act, I'm not a rapper, nor am I melody man. I just make music.

Santan Dave

Music and football are two industries where black people excel, because talent is undeniable. You can't deny an amazing voice. You can't deny amazing athletic prowess. Physically, it's evident. But in other industries, circumstance is more of a thing.

Santan Dave

For a black person who's Senegalese, growing up in France, or a New York Jamaican, that's a completely different relationship with being black and how you might be accepted in that culture or that world. Everyone's experience is different. Especially black women and black men.

Santan Dave

It was a pleasure to work alongside Sir David Attenborough and Hans Zimmer.

Santan Dave

I want to help people struggling with whatever it is they're going through.

Santan Dave

I've always had a different ear for music.

Santan Dave

Grime must be its own genre.

Santan Dave

I've given her bragging rights. That's something my mum's definitely big on, like any African parent. Like any parent.

Santan Dave

It's what I do my entire life when I'm not doing music. If I'm in a hotel room in Sweden, or on a plane to Vancouver, I'm watching football. I'll try to talk about other stuff, too, but football is a lifestyle.

Santan Dave

When I'm performing, the crowd just disappears, it's like everyone merges - one big person. You just say the words and people will say the words back to you. And it's just so rehearsed. I have a lot of songs I couldn't forget the words if I tried. So you get in there, you lose yourself and it's all good.

Santan Dave