I wanted to get into music, I was answering ads in the paper, crazy stuff, really. I met people in a band, [and] ended up going to Antwerp, Belgium.
Matthew Velasco, Heroes, V Magazine, 23 May 2023 source ↗
The question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I wanted to get into music, I was answering ads in the paper, crazy stuff, really. I met people in a band, [and] ended up going to Antwerp, Belgium.
Matthew Velasco, Heroes, V Magazine, 23 May 2023 source ↗
No, I didn’t. Certainly when I was in the one-room country school you described, I guess my ambition at that point was to get through with a creditable performance. Really, of course, nobody thought about astronauts in those days, but I didn’t really even start thinking about airplanes very much when I was in grade school. So that interest sort of came later on.
A barrister or a pop star.
A fighter pilot.
Dancing was in my bones from when I started ballet at two.
Being told I’m a very good friend.
Making my passion into a career.
Remembering something I wish I hadn't said.
A Josef Albers painting.
I start out with an idea, and then you start making things and it turns into something else. You’re just finding your way.
So yeah, that’s what I always come back to when I need to be inspired. Go outside. Go be with some art. Then go make some art.
Emeli Sandé, Ronnie Wood, Viv Albertine, Kim Wilde, Alessia Cara, Jennifer Hudson
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