When I'm writing, those ideas are seldom inspired by music itself. I won't often listen to an artist and come up with an idea.

Musically, some of the acts that I've really been identifying with are: Fleetwood Mac, Roxy Music, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Earth, Wind & Fire, in general music that seems to have a lot of romance to it and a certain glamorous idealism.

Normally when I'm writing, in the beginning I don't think of lyrics at all. I'm just improvising.

It's sad that some people still believe that artists die poor. This is not the case in this day and age.

I think that layers in music, whether it's layers juxtaposing emotions and feelings or layers of texture, make for a more interesting product.

The music that I listen to the most is probably world music, whether it's from African or South America or all over.

We lived in a suburb in Johannesburg, which is a massive city of about 8 million people, and my parents would drive me to school every day and over the weekend I would go to the mall and then occasionally on Safari. Pretty normal stuff, apart from the Safari.