JACK GARRATT

I just hope people enjoy 'Phase' as much as I've enjoyed making it. I hope it's a good reaction.

I got my first laptop, what I learned to do everything on, when I was 17 or 18, and I had no idea what I was doing. I'd only ever produced on an 8-track before. When I was about 13 and writing songs, I would write on that. It would literally be eight tracks, and that's all I had.

I got to a point when I was 20 that I dropped out of university because I felt I didn't have any purpose, and I wanted to find a fire in me.

Lyrics are really, really hard, I think, or at least they're really hard for me. Some people can channel lyrics faster. I find them very hard to find, so because of it, they take me a long time, and I really think about them.

Tech gives people more opportunities to be themselves in front of other people. Sometimes that's great; sometimes it's bad.

I believe that musical instruments are created because they are supposed to be played. There's not an instrument that's been designed to not be playable - it kind of defeats the point.

All I do is hope that someone feels something from listening to my music.

I studied at university for a term and a day, and then I dropped out.

I would go to school and try to talk to my mates about music and playing instruments and stuff, and they would turn around and go, 'What're you talking about? Shut up.' And I realised that I was the weird one.

There's a stigma attached to 'pop music,' like it's a taboo word. It used to make my skin crawl when people said it, and I'd say, 'I'm not a pop star! I want to be a respected musician!' But I think people have changed the way they think about it.

I'm fascinated by film scores, especially film scores for children's movies because they have to be able to entertain an audience that isn't interested in music yet.

The best music is the music which brings out something of you that you didn't know was there before, or you did know was there but had avoided.

I watch cartoons a lot. I'm a big 'Rick and Morty' and 'South Park' fan.

It's amazing to be nominated for the Brits' Critics' Choice Award 2016. It's such a significant award that highlights the importance of new music, so it's a genuine honour to have been nominated alongside some other incredible new acts from the U.K.

I wanted to create a body of work that I was proud of. It's come from honesty and integrity, without forcing anything from myself, the ideas had to come instinctively and organically. Whether that translates to people in that way, it's kind of out of my hands now.

I was a huge pop music fan as a kid, but the bands I was into were like 5ive and N-Sync. It was like watching a cartoon. There was so much going on, and the production was so well mixed. Stevie Wonder was able to give you those melodies and production but back it up with such creative integrity and real musicianship and artistry.

If you can fool every single member of the audience into thinking you're confident and you deserve to be there, everyone will jump on your side.

I spent my entire childhood going 'look at me, look at me, look at me,' before realising I needed someone to look at me for more than just what I was showing off for.

I genre-hop quite a lot. I love manipulating genre and deconstructing it and making it irrelevant. Genreless music is great because it means you get to write in any genre that you like.

I remember listening to 'Songs In The Key Of Life' as a kid. Stevie Wonder has an ability to manipulate pop into something globally obtainable. Anyone can listen and enjoy it because there's something for everyone. That woke me up to the possibilities of pop music.

Music has always been part of my family's life. My brother, sister, and I all have the same ability to pick up an instrument and play.

My mum would play Stevie Wonder around the house, and I remember just loving the songs and feeling so blown away by how much was going on.

I'm ultimately a perfectionist who doesn't believe in perfection.

I want my music to sound good on whatever people are listening - laptop speakers, those crappy little white ones you get with your PC.

I had a passion and a soul in me that was screaming to be heard, and I had to let them out in as honest and challenging a way as I could.