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" I got into the habit of filtering out all the good in my life, focusing on only the negative. I'm not sure why I did it, but it's a pretty depressing state. "
Laura Mvula
Habit
Good
Life
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" I always start with emotion. That's where I start all of my improvisations, on the piano. I always start with the mood or the feel of where I am in that moment. "
Laura Mvula
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Start
Feel
" Fame hasn't really affected me. I have a really close knit group around me, and my sister is always with me, so it's like a bit of a travelling circus. "
Laura Mvula
Circus
Always
Fame
" I like pastels and lighter shades on darker skins. I feel like it lifts everything and accentuates being chocolate. "
Laura Mvula
Like
Being
Chocolate
" There was always a piano in the house when I was growing up - my dad played, and I thought it was cool - and when I was eight, I begged my parents to let me have lessons. After a couple of weeks, I wanted to give up, but my parents were very focused and made me keep going, which I'm very pleased about now. "
Laura Mvula
Growing Up
Parents
Keep Going
" I respect hippos. They just look the way they do; they can't do anything about it, but they don't seem bothered. "
Laura Mvula
Seem
Anything
Just
" I write songs from the heart, and I don't hold back. "
Laura Mvula
I Write
Songs
Write
" There's nothing I love more in the world than layering voices. "
Laura Mvula
Voices
World
Love
" Topshop is one of my favourite shops, and I love shoes by Giuseppe Zanotti. There's a graduate fashion designer called Kate Falcus who makes me beautiful commissioned pieces - one of my favourites was the white Glastonbury dress she made me with the puffy skirt. "
Laura Mvula
Dress
Beautiful
Fashion
" The first time I sang in church, when I was ten, the applause was so overwhelming that I started to weep. My mum had to rescue me from the stage. "
Laura Mvula
First Time
Church
Me
" I listen to a lot of choral stuff at home, but I'm also liking Labrinth, Emeli Sande, Tom Odell and Wretch 32. "
Laura Mvula
Liking
Home
Also
" If I'm uncomfortable on stage, everybody can see it. I'm not very good at hiding it. I like long, loose jacket dresses - anything that I can literally have room to move in - not that I'm a very big dancer, but because sometimes I'm sitting down at the keyboard, and then sometimes I'm standing. It just has to feel good. "
Laura Mvula
Feel
Sitting
Long
" I had a very thorough grounding in music; I'd grown up around songs. My parents listened to a lot of music. My dad was majorly into jazz, which was absolutely a big influence on me, even if it was more subconsciously as a kid. "
Laura Mvula
Influence
Parents
Music
" Lots of people think I'm telling porky pies when I say how nervous I get about singing. I was good at working out how music was put together, and I was good at being at the back, but if you asked me to sing up front, then I looked like I was going to pass out. "
Laura Mvula
Together
Me
Music
" I first played the Royal Albert Hall when I was 14. I was a violinist with the Birmingham Schools Concert Orchestra, and we travelled down from the Midlands for the last night of the School Proms. We played some pieces from the Harry Potter films, and the violin parts were really hard. "
Laura Mvula
Night
School
Concert
" I love church buildings, particularly cathedrals, and I like living in spaces that remind me of music or evoke that creative energy. "
Laura Mvula
Creative
Like
Love
" My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining. "
Laura Mvula
Which
Songs
Write
" I'm by no means a pianist. I think that's safe to say, but the piano, for me, I would say it's the enabler. It gave me what I needed and gives me what I need in order to write a song. And I think playing or improvising on the piano is where I feel most liberated and sort of less conscious of all my insecurities or inadequacies. "
Laura Mvula
Need
Feel
Me
" My parents encouraged us to commit to things, so if we wanted to learn an instrument, it was all the grades and all the theory. "
Laura Mvula
Us
Grades
Instrument
" For me, a wake-up playlist completely depends on what mood I'm in. If I need to get into action pretty quick, it will be between Beyonce and Miles Davis. I'm a massive Beyonce fan, and all of her anthems will do it for me. And Miles Davis, because I grew up hearing his music because my dad played it a lot, so that will always be special to me. "
Laura Mvula
Music
Special
Me
" I'm not like my siblings, who are musical but can turn their hands to other professions! I'd always wanted to be involved in music - I'm a great believer in doing things that fulfil you. "
Laura Mvula
Doing
You
Hands
" If I'm playing a gig in London, it feels so important. The adrenaline rush here is bigger than anywhere else. I kind of like the pressure that London puts you under. "
Laura Mvula
You
Kind
Important
" Being a pop star is something I don't think I'm very good at. I'm worried it's making me too paranoid, because all of a sudden, life has become this constant assessment. When you put something out there and people get to hear it, then those people react to it, socially, culturally. "
Laura Mvula
You
Think
Good
" Lizz Wright is my favourite singer. Her voice moves me and takes me to another place. She also grows her own food, and that inspires me. "
Laura Mvula
Voice
She
Place
" I envy those who can wear red lipstick or any bold lip colour, really. My top lip just doesn't seem to take colour - there's nothing I can do to change that, so I usually just use a nude on the bottom lip. "
Laura Mvula
Lipstick
I Can
Envy
" My aunt is the director of the acapella group Black Voices. I was so struck by them as a child. They sang with such passion and conviction. By the time I turned 15, I had plucked up the courage to ask if I could join the group. Acapella is a different discipline from singing with an accompaniment - it is much more exposed. "
Laura Mvula
Child
Courage
Passion
" 'Mvula' is my married name, but for some reason my nan calls me 'McVula.' I'm not sure if it's one of those jokey Caribbean things, or whether she's just getting it wrong. "
Laura Mvula
She
Caribbean
Me
" I don't think I've ever been chatted up, and I don't think I've ever chatted anyone up. The Fresh Prince has the best chat-up lines. "
Laura Mvula
Think
Prince
Lines
" You don't have to aim to be the best of everything, thinking that one day you're going to be the top of the world; I don't think it exists. "
Laura Mvula
World
You
Thinking
" I love my complexion, but like so many of us, in the early years at primary school, I grew up thinking that my dark skin wasn't a great thing. I've found freedom in music and songwriting, which has given me a freedom in how I present myself. I'm glad I've got makeup to celebrate that with. "
Laura Mvula
Love
Freedom
Great
" I really love jazz, but I will never be a jazz musician as much as I dream. But, I think that the jazz music I love is there in my music. "
Laura Mvula
Jazz
Dream
Love