I don't want to copy the people I admire - I'd rather find out what inspired them and try to find my own way through it.

One of my interests is to understand what constitutes the vibe of a place and what makes one concert different from another.

In some traditional African dances, people wear masks in order to become the embodiments of particular spirits. I have heard that they often cover the mouth-piece with spider webs or something that resonates, so that their voice gets distorted, ceasing to be the voice of a human and becoming representative of a voice that comes from another world.

Going to the Sahara Desert and meeting the Touareg band Tinariwen was a life-changing experience. All through that time, I have just carried on learning and meeting musicians, and I keep finding links between different forms.

In a lot of African instruments, you find a rattle, and sound engineers have a hard time making sense of it.

I like to go to old versions and find out what effect beats and scales have on your body, how they can transport you.

In Western classical music the idea of holiness, purity, perfection, and total beauty is expressed through clarity of sound - a bell-like sound. Obviously, that has its own place, and it's a beautiful way of doing it. But I don't think I am the first to point out that in Africa, the more buzzing the sound is, the more it indicates the other world - the spirit world.