I love finding talents to pair my music with such as Conrad on 'Firestone', Parson James with 'Stole the Show,' and Will Heard on 'Nothing Left.'
Every year that I go out on tour, I think about all the craziest ideas that would be great to go out with, and I think, 'I should see if Jeff Beck wants to join my band for a month or something.'
Fashion bloggers will do their work; it's their job. So let them do it. I am not doing something to make them happy or to get friendly with them so that they write good stuff about me.
I've done lots of films with first directors, so it's not unusual for me.
I've been really lucky to work with a lot of theater directors in the film, like Stephen Daldry on 'The Crown' and Richard Eyre on 'The Dresser.'
I've worked with people from Fred Zinnemann, John Huston, through to Richard Fleischer, all of those boys from Hollywood and so on, and Sam Peckinpah and then the Mike Radfords.
I always had these big records with people who were relatively unknown.
I've done a lot of collabs, but most of the time, it's me on someone else's track.
Given a choice I would only want to work with Salman again and again, but that's not how the industry works.
You do a movie [where] you like the script [and] it has something to say that you care about. And there are certain people in this industry that you kind of stick with. Guys like [“The Congressman” producer] Fred Roos. They call you, and if you’re not working, that’s what you do.
I love working with producers, like doing the record with Laidback Luke on 'Turbulence' and working with Afrojack on 'No Beef.'
All my collaborations happen in different ways. Sometimes it's through a chance meeting at a festival or event, while others can happen just off the back of me liking their music and reaching out.
I'm not big on collaborations with 'superstars.' It generally doesn't work for me.
Think of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges. They used the same actors over and over again.
Some of these guys... I've worked with Ice Cube, I think he's an immensely talented rapper and actor.
I co-produced 'Boyfriend' by Justin Bieber and worked on Labrinth's album, so I've been keeping busy.
I'm working on a number of different things. I'm working on a couple of TV things and I'm working on a couple of film things too, and they're all very early stages. One of them I'm writing myself, one of them I'm writing with somebody else, and one of them I'm supervising a writer, and they're all sort of coming up at the same time and it'll be interesting to see which one kind of reveals itself first and jumps ahead.
One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it's making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it's the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you're dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you.
I'm universal. As much as I can get out a 'Firework' with Katy, I can get a 'Lil Freak' out with Usher. Or a 'Lay It Down' with Lloyd. I can get Caribbean as I did on 'Rio,' then go from there to working with No Doubt.
When I grow up, I want to be like Balvin.
Quentin Tarantino and Sam Jackson are the reasons I'm an actor.
In the past, when Jay-Z did 'Best of Both Worlds' with R. Kelly, I thought it was a great album, but the campaign went south because of personalities.
If anyone has the opportunity to connect the dots and look at the directors I've worked with, from TV to film, there are some heavy hitters, from Taylor Hackford to John Singleton.
I've done songs with legends like De La Soul with Pete Rock. I've done songs with B.O.B. I've done songs with Big Kit.
I got to work with Dustin Hoffman on a film called 'Billy Bathgate.' I got to work with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn and Bob Zemeckis on 'Death Becomes Her.' There are still a few actors out there that I would like to work with.
