Jamie Lidell: The layering of sound is by no means a two-dimensional p...

I've always loved improvising. That's how I write songs. Creativity has an improvised element to it.

Jamie Lidell

creativity writing song

I do my best to make music spontaneously. It's very personal in a way. It's really a direct connection between me and anyone who's watching. I don't want to be in my own bubble. I'm reaching out.

Jamie Lidell

reach-out bubbles direct

If I don't keep my music varied I go a bit stir crazy, you know? If I don't have the opportunity to jump genres every now and again I feel I'm boxed-in.

Jamie Lidell

crazy opportunity

If a shop has a lot of sections I'll end up putting my record above the James Blunt CDs since he ripped off my bloody artwork and he's selling millions of records! I try to get people to buy mine accidentally.

Jamie Lidell

blunt trying people

It's a despicable world we're living in now. It's the most disgusting time for music in terms of big wigs, guys who like playing the game. It's hard to get your stuff heard. I find it really annoying actually. I think my music would appeal to a lot of people but being on Warp in the States it's really hard to get radio play and exposure. We need to push this internet revolution forward quickly.

Jamie Lidell

guy people thinking

I find it quite difficult to analyze my own motives for things. I tend to go with a gut feeling in the moment.

Jamie Lidell

difficult moments feelings

I just wanted to have some songs I could stand behind, and when I'm on stage just be loving it. People ask me why I did that and I think perhaps it's because Berlin is quite a gray place and I needed to sympathize with a bit of sunshine.

Jamie Lidell

sunshine song thinking

Accessible music is much harder. I could throw out the other kind of albums with my eyes closed. I wouldn't belittle those who want to do the Tricky thing, but it does make me wonder sometimes.

Jamie Lidell

eye kind sometimes

All kinds of music comes out that I'm not prepared for. Some of it is good, some of it rubbish, but I kind of accept it all. That's the nature of stream-of-consciousness. You can't always come up with your most lucid material in the heat of the moment. I take that risk when I play live. I open up my mind, however fertile a creative springboard it is that evening.

Jamie Lidell

risk creative mind

I do really enjoy having a crowd of people out to see me. They really motivate me. I feel really lucky they've come down so I give it what I have got every time.

Jamie Lidell

lucky giving people

I'm always constantly battling with dry patches. I think I need a Plan B. Thankfully, I've always been able to pull something out of the bag in the heat of the moment.

Jamie Lidell

moments thinking

I just throw myself into a mad frenzy, whip up a storm and see what comes through.

Jamie Lidell

storm mad

The most important thing for me - and the thing I get frustrated about when I don't achieve it - is momentum. Sometimes you hit on it quite naturally and other times it's a mad struggle.

Jamie Lidell

frustrated mad struggle

There's a difference between writing, the written word, and music. When you have the blank page it doesn't make a sound, which is like what happens to me every night when I'm playing. There is that crazy moment: the first mark you make on the page. But sound can inspire sound, in a way that words can't inspire words - at least for me. The nature of sound itself is still a huge mystery to me. I'm very happy about that.

Jamie Lidell

crazy writing night

There's very much a domino effect when I'm playing. In fact, that's a good way of putting it. I'm trying to topple all the dominos in a single stroke. That would be a show with perfect momentum. Every now and again, you get one of those dominos that moves to the side a little bit, traps things and you have to stand them all up again and see if people will go with you. They'll let you off a few times but if you make too many mistakes they'll get a bit anxious.

Jamie Lidell

mistake people moving

I feel myself developing more and more of this soul voice, and...it's a mystery to me. Fundamentally, I just think because I feel it, it's alright.

Jamie Lidell

mystery soul thinking

I guess I've always had such an identity crisis when it comes to other people's understanding of me. I don't feel it in myself but from an outsider's point of view, I can see they must be thinking, "Who the hell does this guy think he is?" But recently I've been thinking, okay, a white guy can't sing soul, but would a black person be made exempt from singing opera because it's not a tradition that belongs to them? It's the same kind of argument.

Jamie Lidell

guy understanding thinking

I really wanted to maintain that bedroom philosophy to creating stuff. I don't believe the hype; I think a great record is because I put a lot of love into it. If people are feeling it, that's fantastic.

Jamie Lidell

philosophy believe thinking

It's weird how things are really stop-start in my creative process. I can't just turn it on - it just happens kind of randomly and I've just got to ride it when it's good. Surf's up! It's like that.

Jamie Lidell

creative-process kind creative

You have to sit with the songs until they start to live. Or do things straight-up spontaneously. I set up a beat just like I do in the live show, add the lyrics that I wrote in thirty minutes - I already had a topic in mind because I had this crazy experience with this girl who was trying to get close to me and it freaked me out because she was really close to another friend of mine, and I thought, "This is a story, I'm gonna make this into a song."

Jamie Lidell

crazy girl song

The layering of sound is by no means a two-dimensional process. Even though I've been doing it for a number of years, the diversity of it is so intriguing. It's a bit like traveling across the water. Though you may have done it time and time again it always hits you in a different way.