You’ll be wooing the Future Beauty Up Late audience at GOMA this Friday, what can we expect from an Oscar Key Sung live show?
I like to exert a lot of energy and let off steam when I play live. So I suppose you can expect movement and plenty of random unreleased beats and rhythms!

Your vocals are incredible – at what age did you realise you had this gift?
I don’t think I have a gift for singing really. My gift, if any, is probably more so my drive to make stuff. My drive to make stuff comes from my need to reflect and react to my experience. Growing up, my family were mainly people with a creative process or craft, so it probably was just their influence.

While the rest of us were solely consumed by Lego, you wrote your first song at the age of four. What can you tell us about the tune?
I also had a passion for Lego! The song was themed around the line ‘midnight movement’, but I’m sure a lot of kids made up songs and stuff, nothing special there. I’ve noticed that I have a knack for recalling my childhood more than some people. Maybe stuck in the past? I have very vivid memories of growing up, somehow the details just remain intact …

You’ve said that your music can make people both cry and dance – and from firsthand experience, we certainly agree. Can you share some of the more unexpected responses you’ve had to your music over the years?
Sometimes a song can be a time machine, like the way a smell or perfume can be.

How do you provoke these kinds of emotional responses – is it intentional, or more of a side effect from being caught up in the moment yourself?
I suppose it’s incidental. When I’m making stuff, I’m generally trying to provoke an emotional and physical, dancing response out of myself.

Do you have a personal favourite tune in your back-catalogue (solo or with any other projects)?
I think one of my favourite songs that I’ve written is ‘Butterfly’ from the Psuche album. It pains me that I didn’t sing it better, but it’s a very nice, thoughtful song. It was inspired by a Tibetan poem and a time when my mother asked me to capture a butterfly and preserve it for her. Also the drum loop becomes more compressed and distorted across the tune, which I think is still cool. I wouldn’t say it’s a favourite, but it comes to mind at this moment.

Who would you most love to see in your audience one night?
It would be really cool to have my little brother at a show. He’s only 12 and I don’t play a lot of underage shows. Hopefully when he’s older he can make it to some shows!

We know you’re good pals with Banoffee, but who are some other emerging talents we should keep an ear out for?
I think Felicity Yang is one to watch. I really love the sound design element to her tracks. I feel an affinity with the implicit premises of her musical choices. I’m excited to watch her work develop even more.

Do you feel more comfortable on a stage or in a studio?
I’d say I feel as comfortable with both. They definitely bring out very different aspects of a person. Studio is fun because there’s so much trial and error to it – you just keep throwing out ideas until something sticks, and then workshop it. But live is fun because of the pressure, you have to commit to the moment – you can’t do a second take.

We’ve heard you’re a bookworm; what’s one book that has changed you?
Dune by Frank Herbert. I think I first read it when I was 12. Some of the ideas and images still regularly come to mind – imagining a world where water was so scarce, where sound could be harnessed as a weapon, the spiritual power of the harvested spice.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, given or ignored?
My uncle used to say “generalisations are only generally true”. That’s a good one.

What’s your personal definition of ‘success’?
“I want the money, money and the cars, cars and the clothes, I suppose. I just wanna be, I just wanna be successful” ~ Trey Songz feat. Drake.