Australia is so influenced by America. It's kind of in-between the U.K. and the States.
I'm always really curious about, you know, 'How do you deal with success psychologically?' and all this stuff.
Back in the day, I had this fluoro pink hoodie that I thought was the coolest thing ever. Left it at a party and never saw it again. Probably the best thing that could have happened.
The music I was making for people not to dance to was the one they were dancing to.
I want to keep Flume kind of experimental, weird, melodic, pretty.
I think I put a lot of special attention towards creating interesting textures and unique sounds. Music essentially boils down to two main elements: rhythm and melody. I feel tones and textures often get overlooked, so I like to take my time finding the right sounds.
I want to fuse the abrasive and the beautiful.
I'm a really heavy sleeper. When I wake up I'm a terrible morning person.
I've never been one to want to be the center of attention and be put up on stages every night. That's just not really my personality. I'm comfortable with it now, but my real passion is being creative.
I can't sing, but I'll sing over this chord progression, like, over and over, for however long it takes - sometimes it's, like, two minutes, sometimes it's 20 minutes - until I've found like a hook or something that I'm really happy with. And then, basically, it just like that's my melody, and that's where I start from.
I actually found not having a routine was inspiration.
The goal was always to do something that felt human but was 100 percent electronic.
'Sleepless' was the first thing that came out and really gained a lot of traction online.
I want to be creative in as many different environments as possible, whether it's doing film scores, writing for TV ads or video games - all sorts of stuff, as long as it requires writing music.
There's a lot of creativity in the industry, but I don't necessarily think that the most creative DJs or producers are always the biggest ones.
In the right context, you can make ugly sounds, different sounds feel right at home.
I've been having meetings with people, just everywhere in the world, and it's like, 'Hey, really love you to work with me, send me some ideas.' That's the crazy part.
For me, I would prefer to not have my face on the album cover. I don't mind being in the public, but it's just not really my personality, and it's not really why I'm into this. I like making art, and that's it. I don't really want to be a celebrity, seriously. I like my privacy.
I struggled with the pressure of having the successful record after the first record. Second album syndrome. I'm living proof; it's very real.
For me, I actually come from an electronic dance music background: house music, electro house, trance music, even. When I was coming out of school, basically, I discovered Brain Fever, Flying Lotus, J Dilla and all that. That was when I got excited about hip-hop and when the Flume project started.
I like bangers and really testosterone-fueled stuff.
I've grown up by the beach all my life, and I almost get anxiety if I haven't been swimming for a couple weeks or a month. It kind of builds up, so I try and get out as much as possible.
There's no person I aspire to be. I'm just doing my own thing and seeing what happens - not looking to something and trying to be that.
I feel like the first record was really finding my feet, figuring out what music I wanted to make... Now that I've done that, I feel like I've got a much clearer idea of what I want to sound like and what I want to discover. It's exciting.
Once I'm in a situation where I can not do anything for three years and go off the map, I'll focus more on writing. Right now, I want to just make Flume awesome... and big.
Combining sounds that are from another universe with the classic songwriting structures never gets old for me.
Everyone can write their melodies and chords and pianos and guitars, but what hasn't been discovered yet are tones and textures, and that's very exciting. Probably the No. 1 most important thing in my music is not to sound like anyone else.
I don't mind playing my music live. It's fun. But what my real passion is is writing music.
I've never worked with huge pop acts, I mightn't like it, but it's something I've always wanted to try.
Often, when I work with a vocalist, I like to focus on the melodies first.
It's always the first 10,000 SoundCloud listens; that was definitely a big moment, seeing the online stuff grow and crowds grow.
I struggled with the pressure of having the successful record after the first record. Second album syndrome. I'm living proof; it's very real. It was like a psychological battle to be creative. I used to never feel pressure to be creative; it's always just been a fun thing. And then suddenly it's my job, and people are asking, 'Where's the record?'
I always regret leaving home if I don't get at least four or five surfs in the week before I leave. I try to be in the water as much as possible before leaving, and it's the one thing I miss massively.
The thing I find frustrating about rock music is, how different can you make an acoustic drum kit sound, an electric guitar and vocals?
I think at first the Flume project really started out as an online thing. I used Facebook and SoundCloud, and I think we got lucky because it felt like a bit of a golden age of those social media platforms. So I managed to create quite a solid fan base online.
I had this little Bon Iver phase a few years back; 'Flume' was one of my favourite songs.
Music is a job, but I figured out ways to get my mind into a place where I could be creative. I actually discovered meditation. It enabled me to clear my mind of all the drama and focus on the music.
What it is now is basically I'll sit on my computer; I basically kind of play the computer as an instrument, I guess you could say. I guess I play the Mac.
I find that if I interact more, the crowd gets way more into the music. We also have a full live show happening, and I have lighting crew that travels around with me. We've got this Infinity Prism thing, which is lots of fun. It's an optical illusion device that we carry around.
I love heavy music. I keep Flume nice and melodic, so I save the angry, testosterone-fueled heavy stuff for What So Not. I think it's a good defining thing for the two projects.
It was a difficult second record. I had moments where I couldn't write; had moments where I was writing lots. It was just a massive learning process for me.
I want to make music that is completely electronic but doesn't feel it.
A lot of electronic music out there feels cold. I want to incorporate a human element.
I just want to try writing for other people 'cause it's quite exciting.
I think, in the early years, my biggest influences would have been... Daft Punk was a huge one for me, I bought their main record when I was nine; at a young age, I was into music. The Prodigy, Gorillaz were big ones.
I did a few DJ gigs at empty clubs, sort of as a warm-up set before Flume was a thing. I did one when I got big enough, and I had five friends come down, and they were the only ones dancing. That was one of my earliest ones. I was super nervous.
I'm a huge fan of Flying Lotus. I like The XX's stuff.
Along with 'Free,' where I sing quite a bit, there are additional songs on 'Skin' where you can hear my voice in the background - lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs.' But more often than not, I use my vocals to prompt other rappers and singers to feel calmer, better, bolder.
I think the thing that L.A. had on Sydney is an awesome music scene, especially for what I do.
