I was a magnet for people who want to take advantage of people like me, who think they're part of this life but they're not.

Albums, with me, have never had an easy birth. Especially when all the songs are self-written songs.

A lot of youth today have become very narrow and conservative in a way, whereas we in the older generation are kind of living it.

A lot of the early songs I wrote were about the experience of going to London and meeting rent boys and transvestites and drag queens. A lot of my early material is that: the wide-eyed adventures of a middle-class boy.

You can't keep pursuing pop success, and chasing the past.

The way the business things work in Russia is you have to meet people, you have to go through a certain amount of etiquette and business things are done just simply by a shake of the hand and whether they like you or not.

On my Instagram, I'm always keeping a record of things being pulled down in Soho and shutters being closed. Every city - and London more than anywhere - has got to be a vibrant mix of all different things. We can't allow it to become a monoculture.