Rex Orange County

I took piano lessons and I wanted to play drums when I was six. Luckily enough, my parents let me have a drum kit in my room - which is kind of crazy.

I wear my musical heart on my sleeve and show all my influences off. I'm happy for someone to point out that my song sounds like someone else's.

I want to make myself better and get working with some of my biggest influences and make the best music I can.

A lot of music influences me in other ways than this, but I've always taken a lot of influence from Stevie Wonder, Frank Ocean, and Jeff Rosenstock for the Rex music. They were also the first three artists that released albums where I enjoyed every song.

The moment you start thinking about what other people and other artists think, you're going to start writing like other people.

The first person on the BBC that played me was Huw Stephens. I was sat around my laptop with my girlfriend and my family, and it was super-exciting. It felt weird, and it sounded weirder, but it was great.

I won't be the kind of artist speaking in riddles all the time - it will be lyrics that make sense the moment I say them.

I find myself without Internet a fair bit in the house I live in in Streatham.

I'm quite stubborn, and it's hard for me to let people in - whether that's literally, musically, or with business and work.

School did stress me out, like it does for a lot of young people. I didn't like having to do work that I didn't care about.

Alex Tumay is a recording engineer who works a lot with Young Thug and a load of other rappers, like Quavo. I'm just a fan of his work.

Some people can work on the road, and that's incredibly impressive... maybe I'm not working myself hard enough.