Top 40 Shura Quotes

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

I love PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Pixies, Portishead, and Massive Attack: a lot of what I would describe as alternative and indie music.

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.

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

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

I love being in the studio.

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

You have to make sure you love what you do more than anything.

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.

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.

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

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 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.’

Being part of a crowd and not standing out is way more frightening than being the person that stands out.

It’s strange: I love pop music, and I really can enjoy it, but I didn’t feel like the characters within pop music – like when Madonna sings ‘Crazy For You’, for instance, I don’t feel like I would ever be the character she takes on in that song. I would never feel… I don’t have that confidence in me.

It is important that you’re out, and it is important that you’re visible.

I’m massively inspired by Janet Jackson, and I adore Whitney Houston and Madonna.

When I wasn’t working, I was learning how to use production software on YouTube and making music.

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.’

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

Do stuff that is true to your own experiences.

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.

Someone will say, ‘Shura’s album is about being a gay woman in London.’ Umm, I feel like my album’s just about me. I am a gay woman, and I live in London… It’s not about being a gay woman in London.

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.

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

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

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.

It was never like I had to go, ‘I am gay.’ Slowly, almost by osmosis, by the way I was behaving, it became obvious and accepted.

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.

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.

The best thing you can do is having to say no to putting out something that’s good, because everything else is better.

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.

My dad used to do a lot of music when he was young, so he had an 8-track MiniDisc recorder, and when he realized that I was getting on with it, he brought it upstairs to my room and showed me how to record and how, once you finished eight tracks, you can cut it down to two and have another six tracks to play with.

After putting out songs with 26 million views on YouTube, your life changes a little bit. Suddenly everyone’s like, ‘Where’s the album?’

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

I didn’t fit in on my football team; I was always the odd one out.

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 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.

A lot of people think I popped out of some pink cloud fully formed, ready for action, but I’ve been putting songs on SoundCloud since I was 16. Five people would listen and like them. I never had any expectations for myself.