Quotes from Shura

I'm massively inspired by 'True Blue'-era Madonna, but she is absolutely confident and in control of the situation.

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 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.'

When you have a lot of gay friends, you don't think of that as being different or divisive or weird; that's just your reality.

Perhaps a young boy or girl, after watching my video, can go, 'Maybe I don't have to be embarrassed. Maybe I can come out at school, maybe I can tell my best friend... and maybe I don't have to be afraid anymore.'

I know I don't suck at being me. I'm really good at being me.

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!

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

I suffer from imposter syndrome all the time. Even if I'm just at a party, I'm thinking people are going to find out that I'm really boring.

In London, I used to play 'Boys of Summer,' but it didn't feel right, because it doesn't apply to your surroundings, to the weather. I remember being in L.A. and listening to that record and going, 'Oh, I get it now.'

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.

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

I worked in a post-production facility for television, but in the machine room, so I was one of the nerds, essentially - making sure everyone had their footage in and all of that stuff.

Pop should be weird, and I realize as I say this that I'm not the weirdest person in the world. But if that means a girl sounding like Kylie Minogue and looking like Kurt Cobain, then so be it.

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

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

I've tried writing darker, more serious songs, but they don't go anywhere. Everything revolves around the chorus for me.

It's probably the first type of music we had, rhythm, whether it's poetry or tapping.

I couldn't be a Taylor Swift. I would really suck at being Taylor Swift.

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.

Producing albums is 100 per cent where I would love to be, later in my career.

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.

I want to explore my boundaries. I want to push myself and go right to the edge of what I am capable of. I don't want to ever be comfortable.

If you told teenage me that I would end up supporting Tegan and Sara for a month in North America, my head would have probably exploded.