Quotes from Shura

I made the decision that I could either go outside in the freezing cold in the wind and rain and get muddy or just stay inside and be a rock star.

The hardest thing is having to do selfies even when you're on your period and you're queuing at Superdrug to get ibuprofen. That's when I'm like, 'You know what? I don't feel like Shura today.'

Is the mainstream becoming more queer? Or is it the opposite? That artists like me are mainstreaming queer music?

I'm a bit of a geek: I just love being able to play with dials and buttons.

On one level, I am a massive joker and can't take anything seriously, but on the other hand, I'm incredibly serious and a deep thinker, so I have that dichotomy within me.

The past isn't real because it's history, and the future isn't because it hasn't happened yet. I like it, it hints at virtual reality, which I think is how we sort of feel about life sometimes.

I've had relationships before where you break up, and you think you're going to die, and then you realise you're definitely not going to die, and actually, you're probably better off without them.

I started playing when I was about 13, mainly because Dad had guitars lying around the house. My dad taught me my first three chords, and I taught myself from there.

'Nothing's Real' is about my first-ever panic attack, which I had about four months after getting my record deal.

I love scarves and hats and coats. I love it.

People like Prince or Madonna, they're kind of superhuman. You can't imagine them burning their toast, and there's something really exciting about that.

There are two ways of dealing with being odd. One is to really try and conform, and the other is to do the opposite and really make a thing out of it. At school, it wasn't that I was bullied, but everyone was very aware that I was different. I was kind of the token weird person that people accepted into their group, almost like an accessory.

I'm 23, and if I wanted to release a record when I was 17, I could have released a record, but I'm really glad I didn't.

Some of the best songs are love songs. They're things that we all go through, and when we're going through it, we think that we're the only person in the world going through that. Having that music there sort of reminds you that you're not alone. It happens to me, too, as a music fan.

I felt that pop music didn't represent me. And that's why I made my own.

I think it's much harder now with the Internet to hone anything. It's easy to share things: you do one track, and it goes on Hype Machine; people are being exposed a lot earlier.

For me, one song is not enough to be in a person's world. I need to be in their world for 40 minutes; I want to fully experience it and immerse myself.

I'm actually really impressed with everyone at Polydor.

If I fancy someone but can't tell them because I'm shy, I'll think, 'It's fine. You're not going to die. Maybe just tell them or whatever.'

It's really weird when you realize the people you look up to - who have influenced or inspired you - start to realize what you do.

I'm really freaked out by time. How, for instance, what I did last week is not real in the sense that it's happened. It's just a memory that's filed away in my brain.

There's something about rhythm and bass sections generally, how the bass and drums interact, that's basically the soul of any song.

Sometimes we feel like we're only interacting with what's already happening; we don't actually affect anything - sometimes I feel like that, anyway.

I read interviews saying women can bring a femininity to a song, a delicacy, but some women make really aggressive music.