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" I didn't really want anyone to know that I wanted to write music or make songs because, in a way, I didn't necessarily know if I wanted to do it for a profession. I wanted to do it to express myself. "

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" To go from someone who would put something on SoundCloud and maybe get 15,000 plays in a year to getting 100,000 plays in one day felt very weird. I thought I was dying. "

Shura

Dying

Day

Weird

" I've had relationships before where you break up, and you think you're going to die, and then you realise you're definitely not going to die, and actually, you're probably better off without them. "

" A lot of people start by learning other people's songs, but the idea of singing someone else's music didn't excite me. I just wanted to write my own. It was really bad to begin with. It's improved slightly since. "

Shura

People

Learning

" As I grew in confidence, I was able to come out and say that I'm a musician. "

" I'm 23, and if I wanted to release a record when I was 17, I could have released a record, but I'm really glad I didn't. "

" Is the mainstream becoming more queer? Or is it the opposite? That artists like me are mainstreaming queer music? "

Shura

Opposite

Music

" Being part of a crowd and not standing out is way more frightening than being the person that stands out. "

" After putting out songs with 26 million views on YouTube, your life changes a little bit. Suddenly everyone's like, 'Where's the album?' "

" I love scarves and hats and coats. I love it. "

" Sometimes we feel like we're only interacting with what's already happening; we don't actually affect anything - sometimes I feel like that, anyway. "

Shura

Feel

Affect

" There's a part of me that's ambitious. "

Shura

Part

Ambitious

" Whilst the Internet is amazing, someone with a laptop can make something amazing and send it out, but you grow up creatively in a very public way. "

" I got this advice that if you know a panic attack is happening, just sit back and go, 'Okay, this is happening to me, but it'll be over. You'll be fine. You'll live.' "

Shura

Advice

Live

" Pop music for introverts is an idea I wanted to explore. "

" 'Nothing's Real' is about my first-ever panic attack, which I had about four months after getting my record deal. "

" On one level, I am a massive joker and can't take anything seriously, but on the other hand, I'm incredibly serious and a deep thinker, so I have that dichotomy within me. "

" There are two ways of dealing with being odd. One is to really try and conform, and the other is to do the opposite and really make a thing out of it. At school, it wasn't that I was bullied, but everyone was very aware that I was different. I was kind of the token weird person that people accepted into their group, almost like an accessory. "

" It's really weird when you realize the people you look up to - who have influenced or inspired you - start to realize what you do. "

" I think there's something antagonistic about bedroom pop. We're reappropriating pop and saying you don't have to be an ex-Disney star to make pop music. You can be from Shepherd's Bush and have spent most of your life listening to the Smiths and still make a pop record. "

" It was never like I had to go, 'I am gay.' Slowly, almost by osmosis, by the way I was behaving, it became obvious and accepted. "

Shura

Way

Never

" The hardest thing is having to do selfies even when you're on your period and you're queuing at Superdrug to get ibuprofen. That's when I'm like, 'You know what? I don't feel like Shura today.' "

" I love PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Pixies, Portishead, and Massive Attack: a lot of what I would describe as alternative and indie music. "

" I take inspiration from so many places. I think, more than anything, it would have to be the music made by others that I've then fallen in love with, whether it's Madonna, Blood Orange, Fleetwood Mac, or Pink Floyd! "

" It's just as important - if not more important - to take the praise with a pinch of salt, just as you do the criticism. "

" I was obsessed with 'The Lion King' as a kid, and I really wanted to go work in an animal sanctuary and have my Lara Croft moment. "

" I'd love to sing with so many people, but my biggest dream would be to sing on a record with The National. "

" From collaborating with other people, you make concessions, and those concessions are great because sometimes you are definitely wrong. "

" I'm not one of those artists that can go away for six months and tour America and have 20 producers back in London or L.A. doing everything for me and I just come home and sing on it. It would be really useful, in terms of speed, to work like that. I just wouldn't find it creatively satisfying. I have to have my hand on the remote control. "

" I didn't fit in on my football team; I was always the odd one out. "

" With 'White Light,' I had just finished watching 'Under the Skin' and was really obsessed with the idea of science fiction presented as normality. "