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.

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.

I didn't see [Luigi St. Omer] as a teacher. I saw him as a comrade I respected and I could go to see anytime something was bothering me. He was indeed my "big brother". He praised me when I did something exceptional and scolded me when I did things which were out of the way.

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

I tend to keep my mind open to the different forms of art out there and I am always willing to try new stuff.

Generally I'll keep 95% of what I sing on that first scratch vocal take. Sometimes that idea will ferment for a long time, and sometimes I"ll be close enough to my studio and have enough time (kind of rare these days) to go and work on the idea. Not every song is super easy though.

I try to not be self-conscious in my writing process.