15 questions with...John Newman

John Newman may already be known as the charttopping singer with hits like 2012's UK number one Feel The Love (with Rudimental) and global top 10 Love Me Again, but this year he's taken his own advice - "move on before it's too late". He's now embarked on a new chapter, John Newman 2.0, which is more dance-orientated, but actually returns to his production roots where he discovered computer music via some breakfast cereals...

- 

John Newman's career is already full of number one hits and million-selling albums, but his ethos has always been to move on to the next thing, and with his latest releases he's certainly doing just that. After starting out in music while studying in Leeds, Newman moved to London and ended up singing with Rudimental on their number one Feel The Love which kick-started a hugely successful solo career. He enjoyed four huge hit singles from the platinum and chart-topping album, Tribute, while its follow-up, Revolve, strayed further into dance, house, and disco genres.

After taking a break from the industry, Newman is now back with what he describes as 'v2.0' and a completely new dance-orientated direction. It's a risk, but really a continuation of how he started out...

1 How did you start out in music production in the first place?

John Newman: “When I was a kid, I grew up in a small town in North Yorkshire called Settle. There wasn’t much going on and my dream was to be a Formula One mechanic. However, I was DJing in my bedroom from being really, really young and playing old funky house tunes and other amazing things, like electro house tunes. And then I started producing hip-hop and dance music on my computer, and my granddad taught me how to play piano, and my dad was a guitarist. So, I was inspired by that, to the point where I merged them all together. I then went to Leeds College of Music to study music because my brother persuaded me not to do mechanics and invest in my future as a musician, where I really started to learn about music theory and everything like that. Then I lost two of my best friends in a car accident and went to the library and I got this album by Otis Redding, called