Sigala: ‘There’s an OCD Part of Me That Enjoys Knowing That I’ve Gone Through Every Possibility…’

We’ve always thought of you as being a feel-good, summer-time kind of producer: but then, last year, you popped out Wish You Well, which is what we can only describe as an angsty house-pop breakup banger. What gives?

‘I feel like I’m always going to have part of that in my music. I’m just always looking for something new and exciting to do, and that felt really good to me at the time. I got all the feels making that song, and working with Becky… Well, her voice is just incredible, so to be able to work with her was a dream. I just continue to make music that makes me feel good in the hope that it makes everyone else feel good.

You’re back at Casa Del Feel-good with Ella Henderson in your new single, though. You’ve got this real history of working with these incredible vocalists, haven’t you?

‘The collabs are such an important part of what I do, and I’m always looking for new and exciting things to do. I like collaborating with people from different genres, and different places… You never know what you might end up with, and I like that.

Speaking of feel-good vibes: you’re heading out on the road later this month, too…

‘I’m really excited, man. It’s my first proper world tour. I mean, I’ve been pretty much on tour for the last five years, but in terms of proper tours, this is my first world tour – so, I’m really looking forward to that. We’re starting off in the UK next month and I’ve got loads of exciting places that I’m heading to: we’re squeezing a lot of dates in, which is awesome. I’m excited… I haven’t really performed much over the winter so I’m looking forward to heading back out on the road.

What does a Sigala live show look like, then?

‘I’m doing something slightly different this time. I’ve had bands in the past, but this time I’m going for more of a rave – think a big production, with lots of lights, and a party vibe. We’ve got amazing visuals that I’m bringing with me, and… Well, I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll leave some things to the imagination. I’m bringing along some singers and some things that we’re having built for the tour, mind… It’s gonna be a good time.

Was it hard for you to go from being a behind-the-scenes guy to suddenly having thousands of people staring at you every night? One can imagine that being quite jarring.

‘Yeah, it did take a while to get used to that… Probably a good couple of years, actually. I’d performed in bands before, but that was more of a ‘playing keyboards and hiding in the shadows’ deal, which I was pretty happy with at the time; but, when my first song went to number one, I had to learn to DJ super-quickly, so it was slightly tricky to get used to so much changing in such a short space of time.

‘But, now, I feel really comfortable on-stage – it’s so much fun, and I don’t really have to think about what I’m doing anymore. It’s incredible.

‘Making the music is so enjoyable for me, so it’s very important to me that everything I do that’s connected to the Sigala project is fun – because, well, that’s the whole idea. I just want the audience to have fun, as well, as well as anybody who’s listening to my music. So, I feel like if I’m having fun, there’s probably a good chance that everyone else is too.

There are certain genres where you can get away with dressing all in black and looking moody as hell on stage. Feel-good dance-pop isn’t one of them, is it?

‘It just doesn’t work, does it?

What do you listen to when you’re looking for a good time, then?

‘It really varies. I listen to the radio most days, so I listen to a lot of pop music; but, honestly, for pleasure, I probably just listen to the bands and producers that I used to listen to when I was a kid. Like, Foo Fighters, Pendulum, Chase & Status… I think that everyone still gets a certain nostalgia when they listen to the music that they were into when they were growing up, so that’s probably what I’d do.

‘It’s difficult for me to listen to music and not be doing it through the ears of a producer, though. I always end up analysing things and going ‘ooh, how did they do that?’ or ‘that’s interesting…’, so listening to music does occasionally become a chore. I think that’s why I listen to a lot of bands: it’s a lot less production-based, so it’s harder for me to overthink the snare drum or the sampling in the same way that I might analyse a pop song or a dance track.

Do you ever pick out parts of tracks – or even the collective styles of individual producers – that you consciously seek to emulate?

‘For sure. I spent my entire teenage years trying to replicate the sounds of Pendulum, the Swedish House Mafia, and a bunch of other stuff that was successful at the time. I think I learned a lot from trying and failing to replicate their sounds and then coming up with something original as a by-product of that failure. That’s usually how music’s made…

It seems like part of any creative process is fucking something up a tiny bit and then seeing what comes of it from there.

‘Exactly! You’ve got to get that inspiration from somewhere, and it’s always coming from some subliminal memory or a feeling that you get from a certain song.

Let’s talk about your songwriting process. Do you start with the vocal and work from there or vice versa?

‘It’s different every time and it takes longer every time I do it. The first song I did, Easy Love, took me about six hours from making the first demo to mastering it in my bedroom and sending it off. Now, it takes more like 150-200 hours to finish a song: the process is so much longer, and I like to try every single possibility of ‘oh, I wonder what it’d sound like in a different key’ or a different tempo… So, the song will go through a million different iterations before I think of it as being finished.

‘There’s an OCD part of me that enjoys knowing that I’ve gone through every single possibility and landed on the final, correct, version.

Let’s talk dream collaborations. Who’s on your hit list?

‘Ed Sheeran’s at the top. Lewis Capaldi would be up there; Chris Martin from Coldplay, too. James Arthur. A lot of guys… I’ve worked with a lot of girls, so I feel like the next single needs to be with a guy just to level out the field a bit.

You seem to be drawn towards these brilliant pop voices that are all quite distinctive in their own way.

‘There’s a lot of pop music where you can’t really determine who’s singing it unless you read the title. But I love it when you hear a song on the radio and immediately know who it’s by based on their voice alone; and, I think it’s really cool to have somebody like that on a record. That’s what I try to do with my productions as well – I like to think that somebody might switch on a song one day and think ‘that sounds like Sigala!’.

Right, and the last question we’ve got for you: describe yourself in three words?

‘Perky! Naughty. And cheeky.