When I was growing up, my dad didn't have weights, so he made himself a weight bench. Instead of a hand-me-down jacket, it was a hand-me-down weight bench.
Growing up in an old-fashioned Bengali Hindu family and going to a convent school run by stern Irish nuns, I was brought up to revere rules. Without rules, there was only anarchy.
I was growing up at a time when music was growing and changing so fast. I had learned all the big band sounds of the 1940s, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey. But then along came Chuck Berry, Les Paul, Fats Domino and I figured out how to make their music as well.
The story that I wanna tell is pretty much about the way I grew up. Being bi-racial, growing up in a big city and being an artist.
I was a really big fan of cartoons growing up, and I loved to read too much into them most of the time.
Travis Scott is definitely a big inspiration. Lil Wayne was a big one. Lil Wayne, 50 Cent. Those were my two, like, big ones growing up. Then I got into Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa phase.
My biggest influence growing up was Avicii, who put me onto creating the sorts of melodies that feature throughout my songs today.
I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was growing up and always wanted to be surrounded by wildlife.
When I was growing up, I had a nanny who would always play 'The Sound of Music' and 'Bye Bye Birdie,' so I was always listening to that stuff.
I remember me being that kid growing up. Me being the kid that grew up going to games and being a ball boy and wanting a high five from Blake Griffin or the other players.
I love finding out-of-the-box inspirations and blending them with what I've done in the past. And when I started to experiment with genres, it didn't sound forced. Maybe that's because it's all music that I listened to growing up, and it's all music that I love.
I was a late bloomer, and that was my issue growing up.
A lot of what I listened to growing up was blues, but also folk and indie music. So there's this marriage of songs that structurally are quite bluesy. Sound-wise, there's a lot of indie as well. But you can't really say I'm pop-blues, because that's insulting to blues. It just can't exist.
Growing up, there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast.
Growing up in Bombay, I saw many sick people.
People probably growing up said U.S. Open wouldn't suit me, because I'm a long hitter, I'm a bomber.
When I was growing up, there were so many things I thought were stylish. Jabo jeans, V Bombers, Clarks, Vikings, Nugget watches, Lee pants with the patches, leather hats - which I still wear now. All hip-hop stuff, all South Bronx stuff.
When I was growing up I actually was into Bon Jovi!
We'd had books in my house growing up, but we had never had anything like lectures. I had never written an essay for my mother. I had never taken an exam. Because I was working a lot as a kid, I just hadn't elected to read that much.
When I'm not in the booth, I'm one of the most laid-back guys. But growing up, I liked DMX, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and T.I. - dudes that went all out on the track. My first songs were energetic because I liked their energy.
