Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I just want to prove myself.
The day I write a totally happy song... I'll retire.
I have this unyielding desire to do high-quality work.
People know my song but they don't know the guy who sings the song.
When I recorded 'Waves' I was in England, and I was there for months.
I was writing songs in my room for like six year, not showing anyone.
I spent five years watching every Noel Gallagher video that was on YouTube.
I grew up listening to Oasis and The Verve; English music was huge in my house.
I didn't really gig my way in. I was just in my bedroom writing songs for so long.
When you first start out, it's a big thing you're always like 'does my voice sound good?'
I'm very lucky to have signed to Island records U.S.A. It's one of those pinch yourself moments.
I can write a happy song, but there has to be some sort of twist. Otherwise it feels a bit cheesy.
I started realizing that when I played festivals I didn't want to be writing all these down, sad songs.
I wasn't the kind of guy who was like 'here's my demo,' or 'listen to my demo.' I just never thought it was that good.
I mean, sometimes it's really good to listen to something like Tom Petty, that's purely blissed out. But that's not me.
I've been writing a lot of sad songs, and I got to the point where I was like, 'You can't write another one or you're lying.'
I visualize songs like a little movie scene and I try to almost talk through the scene. What emotions am I trying to get across?
If you're big in America, you can go to Australia and automatically, the first time you'll be there, you can sell out huge venues.
I always, always go to my brother Rhys's house whenever something goes wrong and he'll always say 'you'll be alright, forget about it.'
When I'm working on an idea I have a very high level of expectations. If we do a video it has to be high level. Artwork has to be really good.
Having all this success in Australia is life-changing and incredible and has given me the opportunity to come to the U.S. and get started over here.
I'm not trying to get across some sort of message or statement. I'm just literally trying to write the best songs I can write. It's all that matters.
Everyone wants to be chosen for Up Next. You get on a billboard in Times Square and in Los Angeles! This helps get your name out there on a huge scale.
There's nowhere else in the world that's quite like that, where they encourage going after your dreams, especially in Los Angeles. I think it's really cool.
When something is great, then you can sit back after the work is done and relax, but during the process I definitely am making sure everything is really, really good.
I guess I'm a pretty honest person, but I think my friends were surprised when they heard my stuff for the first time. I'm not super expressive when I'm just going about my life.
Especially with 'Be Alright,' that's about a bunch of relationships and some people that I'd never even met, there was some stories friend and family had told me over the years, that I put into the song.
You can write a song for someone, and then their mom doesn't like it, and then it doesn't get released. It could be the best song that you've ever written. I hated that, because I didn't have any control.
You can't come back to Australia and be like, 'I've been doing this and I've been doing this.' 'Cause they'll be like, 'Who do you think you are, mate?' Which is good! It keeps you really, y'know, grounded, I guess.
So, I would write songs... I sort of loved it and hated it in the sense that I would be like, it's never good enough, and I didn't think it was that good, but I always kept striving to write better and better stuff.
There's Sia and 5 Seconds of Summer but that's sort of it, nobody from Australia really has success in America, and to have a song go so well on radio, you start to have success and you think, 'Oh God, I don't want to lose that!'
There's a cafe in Mosman near where I lived and if I have any days off I go there at 10 in the morning with my notebook, sit in the same chair, order the same breakfast and coffee, write my thoughts down, and chat, have the same conversation with the owner.