I couldn't be a Taylor Swift. I would really suck at being Taylor Swift.
Shura
I don't care about how many records I sell, but the main thing is people like it.
I'm a bit of a geek: I just love being able to play with dials and buttons.
On one level, I am a massive joker and can't take anything seriously, but on the other hand, I'm incredibly serious and a deep thinker, so I have that dichotomy within me.
I've tried writing darker, more serious songs, but they don't go anywhere. Everything revolves around the chorus for me.
I'm massively inspired by Janet Jackson, and I adore Whitney Houston and Madonna.
I'm not one of those artists that can go away for six months and tour America and have 20 producers back in London or L.A. doing everything for me and I just come home and sing on it. It would be really useful, in terms of speed, to work like that. I just wouldn't find it creatively satisfying. I have to have my hand on the remote control.
A lot of people start by learning other people's songs, but the idea of singing someone else's music didn't excite me. I just wanted to write my own. It was really bad to begin with. It's improved slightly since.
Perhaps a young boy or girl, after watching my video, can go, 'Maybe I don't have to be embarrassed. Maybe I can come out at school, maybe I can tell my best friend... and maybe I don't have to be afraid anymore.'
I've had relationships before where you break up, and you think you're going to die, and then you realise you're definitely not going to die, and actually, you're probably better off without them.
Being part of a crowd and not standing out is way more frightening than being the person that stands out.
It was never like I had to go, 'I am gay.' Slowly, almost by osmosis, by the way I was behaving, it became obvious and accepted.
I'm massively inspired by 'True Blue'-era Madonna, but she is absolutely confident and in control of the situation.
After putting out songs with 26 million views on YouTube, your life changes a little bit. Suddenly everyone's like, 'Where's the album?'
I didn't fit in on my football team; I was always the odd one out.
It's just as important - if not more important - to take the praise with a pinch of salt, just as you do the criticism.
There are two ways of dealing with being odd. One is to really try and conform, and the other is to do the opposite and really make a thing out of it. At school, it wasn't that I was bullied, but everyone was very aware that I was different. I was kind of the token weird person that people accepted into their group, almost like an accessory.
A lot of people think I popped out of some pink cloud fully formed, ready for action, but I've been putting songs on SoundCloud since I was 16. Five people would listen and like them. I never had any expectations for myself.
To go from someone who would put something on SoundCloud and maybe get 15,000 plays in a year to getting 100,000 plays in one day felt very weird. I thought I was dying.
The first time I shared music was on Myspace. Then SoundCloud came along. The difference with SoundCloud is that people can comment on stuff, which was more frightening but also way more fun - especially if they liked it.
I love scarves and hats and coats. I love it.
Whilst the Internet is amazing, someone with a laptop can make something amazing and send it out, but you grow up creatively in a very public way.
Pop should be weird, and I realize as I say this that I'm not the weirdest person in the world. But if that means a girl sounding like Kylie Minogue and looking like Kurt Cobain, then so be it.
Pop music for introverts is an idea I wanted to explore.
I take inspiration from so many places. I think, more than anything, it would have to be the music made by others that I've then fallen in love with, whether it's Madonna, Blood Orange, Fleetwood Mac, or Pink Floyd!
You have to challenge yourself about the choices you make as an artist.
I'm 23, and if I wanted to release a record when I was 17, I could have released a record, but I'm really glad I didn't.
I'm actually really impressed with everyone at Polydor.
I suffer from imposter syndrome all the time. Even if I'm just at a party, I'm thinking people are going to find out that I'm really boring.
There's a part of me that's ambitious.
I'd written songs since I was 16, but I never thought that I would be a musician full time.
I worked in a post-production facility for television, but in the machine room, so I was one of the nerds, essentially - making sure everyone had their footage in and all of that stuff.
Some of the best songs are love songs. They're things that we all go through, and when we're going through it, we think that we're the only person in the world going through that. Having that music there sort of reminds you that you're not alone. It happens to me, too, as a music fan.
Do stuff that is true to your own experiences.
'Nothing's Real' is about my first-ever panic attack, which I had about four months after getting my record deal.
For me, one song is not enough to be in a person's world. I need to be in their world for 40 minutes; I want to fully experience it and immerse myself.
I felt that pop music didn't represent me. And that's why I made my own.
I want to explore my boundaries. I want to push myself and go right to the edge of what I am capable of. I don't want to ever be comfortable.
Is the mainstream becoming more queer? Or is it the opposite? That artists like me are mainstreaming queer music?
There's something about rhythm and bass sections generally, how the bass and drums interact, that's basically the soul of any song.
When you have a lot of gay friends, you don't think of that as being different or divisive or weird; that's just your reality.
I love PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Pixies, Portishead, and Massive Attack: a lot of what I would describe as alternative and indie music.
People like Prince or Madonna, they're kind of superhuman. You can't imagine them burning their toast, and there's something really exciting about that.
I think there's something antagonistic about bedroom pop. We're reappropriating pop and saying you don't have to be an ex-Disney star to make pop music. You can be from Shepherd's Bush and have spent most of your life listening to the Smiths and still make a pop record.
It's really weird when you realize the people you look up to - who have influenced or inspired you - start to realize what you do.
I know I don't suck at being me. I'm really good at being me.
I started playing when I was about 13, mainly because Dad had guitars lying around the house. My dad taught me my first three chords, and I taught myself from there.
I got this advice that if you know a panic attack is happening, just sit back and go, 'Okay, this is happening to me, but it'll be over. You'll be fine. You'll live.'
It's probably the first type of music we had, rhythm, whether it's poetry or tapping.
I love camping, everything about it - tents, the camping stove, sleeping bags. I'm obsessed with technology, be it synthesizers and speakers or tents and Gore-Tex.
