Quotes from Bonobo

There was a time I was around those fan boats that go across swamps, and the fans had a really rich, multi-textural sound. So I used that as a waveform for a bass line on the title track for 'Migration.'

If you're in a current mind state where you know what you want from the track, you can't just leave it and expect to come back with the same mindset.

That's when things get exciting - when you're outside the comfort zone, trying different things.

The process of making music is very therapeutic; it's late at night and I'm wearing headphones a lot of the time, so it becomes a way of zoning out and engaging with my thoughts. It's a solitary environment and process.

I was in bands, like everyone else, when I was 16, 17; I was a little skater listening to Dead Kennedy's and Steel Pole Bath Tub. It was through early 90s Hip Hop that I found my way to Soul and Funk, and then out the other side into beats.

Computers can be taught that certain tune or certain chords changes will sound pleasant together, but I don't think it's going to reach a point where a machine will generate ideas and styles.

I didn't really think my music was good enough to be heard by anyone. I had some friends who were releasing records who were older than me, and within that group, I was always the younger, patronized friend who was making tunes as well, which everyone thought was cute.

New York is great in your twenties.

In the very beginning, I kind of had this hip-hop, cut-and-paste approach to music. The first record, especially, was from looking at people like DJ Shadow and A Tribe Called Quest, and I think a phase that a lot of people go through when they start sampling is to go out and stamp on twigs and try to record that kind of stuff.

I've never been one of those musicians to differentiate between acoustic and electronic sounds. I just see it all as sound sources to be used. This translates into my live shows as well.

Every record I've made, I've mixed and engineered at home.

I've spent a lot of time in Montreal, it's one of my favorite cities in the world.

Life has highs, lows, loud and quiet moments, beautiful ones and ugly ones. Music is a reflection of life.

As a club DJ, it's more about the room and the whole immersive experience of the club. In a live show, the focus is on the stage. It's more of a performance, more of a spectacle.

I really enjoy DJing but I couldn't DJ exclusively. I couldn't produce exclusively either, that would involve spending a lot of time in isolation. But l do enjoy performing the music l create to people. It's a release for me.

I often use a return channel to get some shape out of the bass. It's a good way to split the frequencies of the bass so that the sub bass is clean and in mono and the higher end of the bass sound can be filtered off - have it on an audio channel and that's where you can use effects.

The only criteria I have with every new album is to keep moving on from what I've done before.

I'm always just referencing whatever I'm listening to or wherever I am musically.

The ability to have that mobility of music right now, where you can be in an airport with a sample library, it means that you can channel that mind-space you're in when you're overly tired and in an unfamiliar place.

I'm always trying to find new things that I haven't done before.

I think nostalgia is kind of dangerous in music.

I've noticed one in five ideas never amount to anything.

You really only have to use one half of your brain when you're deejaying.

I never used to be able to work on the road, I was always strictly in the studio. But not everything's gotten smaller - I have Ableton on the laptop now and a sample library, which means I can use that downtime to pour it into the music.