If you come at the record feeling really happy and optimistic, it can be incredibly beautiful and uplifting, and if you come at it in a bleak moment, it can feel like a very dark place to share. It's all down to the listener.

In the same way, I write some of my more difficult pieces when I'm at very happy stages in my life.

I never feel that I have to adopt a character. It's more the way I choose to present the music and that's always based on what is right for the song.

The way I make music is unique to myself and the way I have lived my life - no one else would tell that story in the same way that I do.

I don't like things to be handed to me on a plate; that means nothing. I like to go through layers of unraveling and every time I listen to something, it makes me feel something different. Now I'm aware of the conflict that's going on, but at the time I just let what was happening happen.

Like I have to pretend like I'm a male rapper, that I got stacks and we're in the club, and what do I want to say. And then, when writing Rare I could just be PJ.

I had a chip on my shoulders 'cause I felt like I was being overlooked.