All my aunts in the Phillipines, they look at me and say 'Darreeeeeen! You so thin! Eat!'

I just hope I can continue to do work that matters to me, I’m not interested in being any kind of superstar or anything I’m not. I’m just a dude who got lucky and an artist who cares about the work that I do.

We are a categorically obsessed culture, where we have to compartmentalize everything in reference to another thing, like, 'What does it sound like? Does it sound like this?

I remember seeing Aladdin when I was five or six and loving it. I looked at the big screen and said to my mum, Whatever this Genie guy does, I want to do. Mum said I couldnt be a genie, but that Robin Williams, who did the voice-over in the film, was an actor. So I said, OK, then, I want to be an actor.

I never thought I would meet Mariah Carey, but I really never thought I'd be introduced to her by Whitney Houston. She's like, "Hey, baby, this is Mariah." I'm like, "I know. I'm Darren. I don't know what I'm doing here."

As a composer and as a musician I'm a true believer - and this is not to be overly diplomatic - I'm a believer that there's artistry in everything from a lawn gnome to a desk chair to a symphony to an Andy Warhol painting. There's art in absolutely everything.

I'm ambitious in the sense that I raise the bar high for myself.