I don't like the whole 'slander, slander' conversation that most political debates are these days. So I tend to keep my political standpoint not to myself, but just relatively private.
— Lukas Forchhammer
Writing is very cathartic for me.
I don't mind Ed Sheeran, but I wouldn't want to be compared to a guy that builds his song around a guitar, since we do not have a guitar in our band.
That's why I can't listen to a whole record of Adele's. She has the most amazing voice, but people must have convinced her they just want to hear love songs.
We have a big fan base in Australia, but none of us have been before.
We don't take advantage of our position. We keep saying no to free stuff, as we can afford it now.
We mix a lot of genres - soul, pop, jazz - but we most agree on hip-hop.
I wish we could not ever get recognised on the streets, do no selfies, and still perform music all over the world. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to be the case, but I'm doing my best to just keep my feet on the ground and my eyes on the prize.
I remember getting a toilet in our house. I remember sharing a bedroom with my sister, and my little sister was sleeping in my mom and dad's room.
In the early '90s, my cousin gave me a Snoop Dogg cassette tape, and the rawness of the lyrics were something new to me.
I don't know why, but I don't fancy writing love songs; I never have.
We're surprised, ecstatic, vibrant and exultant about the success of '7 Years.'
When you get frisked by the police at the age of 10, and they empty your schoolbag out in the street and kick your books around and calling you names because of where you live, you just get an anger towards everyone who is outside of your neighborhood.
I was writing rap at 12 years old and began writing songs as a 20-year-old. I think I wrote my first song in the winter of 2008-2009, when I was in Buenos Aires. I was writing about growing up and my boys back home.
I don't know how to thank all the people listening to our music. It's so amazing to come home to my friends who resist conformity, because they're so happy that I've made it.
Listening to all these different musical genres from all over the world and listening to my father's record collection, the Irish folk influences from home. Of course they're all in there somewhere hiding within the lyrics and melodies. But rap music was the biggest influence on my way of writing and my performing.
I'll probably stay in Copenhagen... I can keep writing songs about my local community and about crime.
A part of me understands why a mother is equally proud of all her children, but that little boy inside me just wants my mom to say, out loud but even just to me, 'I'm a little bit prouder of you.'
The furthest I can see is me being 60.
The songs were there before the band was there, and it's my songs. And it's like, we're not in the 1950s. We can't call ourselves, like, 'The Revolvers' - it just doesn't work that way. And 'The Lukas Graham Band' just sounded wrong.
The last thing I want is for people to say that the music is nice. It's not nice. It sounds good, but it's got grit, and it's got edge. It never veers into sweet.
'7 Years' is, you could say, a song that eats its own children. That we need to get past the song and get to the person and get to the record and get to the music so we can keep releasing.
I bought a restaurant - that was pretty expensive.
I dropped out of law school when I got my record deal.
We're like, 'Woah, are we even in that league where we get nominated for a VMA?' And yet our name is right down there among the other nominees. It's very, very strange coming from a country of five and a half million people.
I write instead of going to the shrink!
I grew up with nothing, and I know that I don't need anything to be happy. We were wearing second-hand clothing and eating leftovers, and I was so happy. Five-star hotels and private pick-ups hasn't changed that.
'7 Years' seems to have attracted a lot of age groups - people seem to see their own lives in the song, and it's great to see so many people reacting in that way to it.
I don't play any instruments. I don't produce. I don't know which keys or chords I am using, so, in essence, I need the band and the production team - otherwise, I am just some guy with a hat and a song.
What hit me in the gut about hip-hop was that someone else grew up tough enough to be angry at the entire system.
My biggest influence is rap. It spoke to me, probably because of my upbringing in Christiania. You listen to 'The Chronic' and you can hear that anger and frustration.
I don't think I can remain anonymous for that much longer. It was fun while it lasted. Very fun.
I've always wanted to release records in America. That's where I believe the music belongs, and the style and the eclectic musical mix that we put together kind of belongs here.
I just thought it would be awesome to become a lawyer, especially being from a neighborhood seeing the police rough up so many people unnecessarily, people who haven't done nothing. Growing up with kids from dysfunctional families and stuff, I just felt that some kind of difference could be done. And now I'm getting to do it with music instead.
I write about what happens in my life - and my dad's passing was a huge blow to me.
I get emotionally spent answering questions about my dead father and my criminal friends and my upbringing in a hippie environment in a marginalized community.
Graham was my father's second name, so I took Graham because Lukas Graham sounded cool.
We've had to be escorted out of venues, things like that. We get security guards now.
Here in America, the big-brand collaborations kind of signify how far you've gotten. So in that sense, it's a giant kudos to us that we, within the first year, get to be the first ones to be the launchers of this Pepsi Sound Drop.
The lyrics are the essential part in our songs.
Dr. Dre's '2001' album changed modern pop music.
Our goals, our dreams and ambitions have always been towards performing live music across the globe, and so when we were told we were performing at The Billboard Awards or being nominated for a VMA, they're like extra bonuses.
I think losing my father was OK in the sense that it's cool for me not to have a father; it's normal. I'm supposed to bury my father. But what I didn't realize was that my father was my best friend, and that still gets me... that still irritates me a lot.
Christiania has a lot of strong, nuclear families. It gave us a sense of empowerment and belonging and richness. We had so much love; we were never in doubt that we were wanted in this world.
It's very satisfying when you see your song at the top of the charts.
I never want to lose sight of my roots... A lot of artists want the riches and the fame. I want to tell stories you can put into the context of your life.
When my dad died, my world crumbled.
I really like singing. I believe that if I wasn't a good singer, I would have been tossed out of school.
If it was up to me, it would be nice not ever to get stopped on the street, because we just do music. I didn't do this to become a celebrity.
If I moved to L.A., I wouldn't move to a ghetto neighborhood. I'd move to some posh, fancy place.
