Q. You took a long time mulling over your sophomore album. Did it affect the final output?
A. I tried to perfect it, whereas '+' (his first album, Plus, 2011) was just an of-the-moment thing. There was a lot of hype around me at that time, in terms of building a fan base and radio, and I was releasing stuff so often that the album just followed in quick succession. There wasn't a big lead up to it or pressure to work with big people and create a monster hit; just the release of an album.

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Q. With your lead single, 'Sing', you have deviated from your usual style of music, a bit. How did you work it out?
A. It's the first time I have worked with a pre-existing track. When musician Pharrell Williams played me a demo, he was like, 'Nah! I love it, but it's not for me.' And I said, give me a shot. So, after figuring out the chords that I had laid down — in between jokes and people coming in with coffee — he kept playing it, and he looked up at me, like, 'S#!t, is this really happening?' as I'm looking at him with an 'I told you so' smile. 30 minutes later, the song was pretty much finished. He's one of the most impressive, underestimated singer-songwriters of our time.