I come from hip hop for sure, and there are basic elements of that, but then I'll take from somewhere else, like samba, and do it with trap drums. I like going places other people haven't gone before.
Collaborating on 'Tusa' with Nicki Minaj came into my life unexpectedly and I wanted to keep it like that for my fans.
I've done a lot of collabs, but most of the time, it's me on someone else's track.
When I got out of the Nazz, I had it in my mind that simply to be eclectic was an important aspect of making music. It was something that I derived from The Beatles.
I was singing totally jazz then, but when I heard the Beatles and heard the gospel influence and everything, I just said, 'I can make jazz with R&B.'
It was great fun to be able to work with so many different artists. And I'm paying a tribute to the Beatles. I've just recorded some of their songs.
I feel like we're very lucky in the sense that Dawes can be the kind of band that plays with Bright Eyes or M. Ward but that also plays with Bob Dylan.
Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I'm very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.
I'd like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!
I would probably work with Drake as he is massively inspirational to me as a writer as well as an artist. If not him, then Susan Boyle!
There's a lot of hip-hop that would be great with a banjo in it. It would just groove like crazy, and I hope I get to be one of the guys who does that, because it's coming. It's coming.
I really just like breaking down the barriers, whether it means doing an album with Linkin Park, an album with R. Kelly, or playing at the Brandenburg Gate with Bono.
I would love to be one of those fellows who combine formal and folk music approaches.
My whole way of looking at entertainment and audience engagement - and my ability to go from one genre to another - comes from my experience in New Orleans.
I started off just trying to make a wish list for myself. I wanted to work with people I really admire myself. I wanted to work with other artists from other scenes so they could make my songs improve in a different way - people who have artistically different things to say.
On many different singles, I was able to marry my music with rappers who understood the natural bond between us.
I don't see categories; I don't see styles - l see them all gelled together. And it was gospel that definitely helped me to do that.
I came up playing in both punk rock bands and hip-hop bands, and I found a more universal way of reaching people, especially with music that has a message to it.
Rather than highlighting music's differences, Kids & Explosions' Josh Raskin mixes songs together based on their surprising common ground, making them blend rhythmically and melodically.
I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.
I've worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren't.
We're bringing together the country folks and the rockers.
We create music to express ourselves and when the world relates, that's a beautiful thing. We're all trading off each other's culture, so no matter what lines you put--country indie rock, rap, we're all somehow gonna find a way to come together.
Hip-hop took some lessons from rock 'n' roll, and rock 'n' roll took some lessons from hip-hop.
I like the idea of working in different genres and transcending genres and hopefully finding success, and ultimately make movies people like.
