Prince

Again, my inspiration comes from a totally crackbrained artist. It’s also what links all my inspirations together. I admire the crazy ones that do things differently and don’t care about the status quo. They are the ones that push things in a new direction and they push me to go beyond my limitations and be a better artist. They show me that making music doesn’t abide by any rules; they’re only there to break.

One of which is Prince. His influence actually boils down to one scene from Purple Rain. It’s the scene where his ex-girlfriend comes to see his show with her new boyfriend after they broke up. He then directs his performance completely to her and, not so subtle, lets her know what he thinks of her. It starts with a filthy beat, which only he can make and is a highlight on itself. When he starts singing it only get worse. The lyrics are so nasty: “I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine”. He’s got the performance to match and he really stabs the song and the words right into her heart. It’s so well performed that it almost feels like he’s assaulting her.

He breaks with conventions and doesn’t care about what anyone thinks of what he does. Being able to convey so much emotion and being able to direct it to only one person in the audience in such an unbound way is just crazy! I would really love to be able to do that some day.