Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Politicians have an arrogance that I just do not understand. I've seen more constructive debates in high school.
It's not about someone making a difference on their own; it's about everybody pulling together to make a difference.
I don't want to slip into Johnny Borrell mode. I don't want to be singing that there's nothing on TV, nothing on the radio.
As I'm getting older, I work out what I want and what I need. And I just need to go home and see the people I love and write.
Sometimes it's good to just sing and let the words come out. Whatever comes out is valid because it's what you were thinking.
I like to indulge all the facets of my personality. There's none that I don't think, in a way, I would want to take away from.
My inspiration for songs is just everyday life. I just write down words about things that have happened to me, people I've met.
I remember I wanted to be Zorro, but I also wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I obviously had ideas above my station.
The success was a difficult thing for me to get my head round. When it gets too much, I just have to disappear - to sort my head.
Racism is one of the worst forms of torture because it's directed at something you never asked for and something you can't change.
Sometimes people don't know what is behind the words they use. But an innocent little remark at school can affect you later in life.
I like to record something pretty much as soon as I have an idea for a song, but I'm on so many buses, I have to record on my mobile.
Sometimes when you get frustrated, your back is against the wall, and you come out fighting and knock out three songs in as many days.
Maybe it's the way that I do music, but I was never in a cool indie band or hung out with all the cool arty kids when I came to London.
When I got my first publishing deal, I felt some responsibility to try to write with the people that they were asking me to write with.
I like to watch a bit of Disney, sprinkle some cocaine on some melon and just sit and eat it. I'm joking, I'm joking. There's no Disney.
The first time I did everything was in Paisley - the first time I went to the pictures or the bowling or the ice rink or the swimming baths.
I'm in the highest bracket. There's no way that a 22-year-old should be hit for that amount of money when he's got his whole life ahead of him.
You've got to make sure that you don't have an airbrushed picture making you look like a 15-year-old cherub when your lyrics suggest otherwise.
The songs are just an attempt to document what's been happening in my life. If people can relate to what's going on with me, then that's great.
Where'd the days go, when all we did was play? And the stress that we were under wasn't stress at all just a run and a jump into a harmless fall
I just want people to leave a show and go, 'That was the most rockin' show I've ever seen.' I hope people can just roll with me a little bit - you know?
I don't know if I've got the capacity for all of the creativity that I want to put out there, which is annoying and frustrating - it's kinda like torture.
With the first album, there was a lot of angst. I was very naive. I thought I was on top of the whole thing, but I really didn't know what I was getting into.
I write on the acoustic guitar, I write some on the piano, but I've been messing around with these guitar pedals and drum machines, educating myself in that world.
A lot of people have been very dismissive of me. I'm hardly the darling of the NME. It used to get me down a bit, but you reach a point where you can laugh it off.
One of my ambitions is to move to Tuscany. I like the idea of getting a vineyard. I love being under the sun and being casual and comfortable. That's my idea of heaven.
You should have something to say, an idea you want to get out, and if you don't, just get out of the way, 'cause there's so many great musicians and writers that are in the queue.
I thought about going onto the first one, Pop Idol. My mum was saying, 'Go on!' But I decided not to. 'The X Factor,' though, doesn't really seem to be a show about musical talent anymore.
All of a sudden, my picture's in the paper, or I'm making a music video, and it's still the most surreal experience. I thought you could learn, and you would acclimatise, but I really haven't.
I can't speak much Italian. I do go down well over there, but it's frustrating because I can't really speak it. Even if I do talk, they can't understand my accent, but I should try to learn it.
The people I admire are Tim Buckley and John Martyn - singers that grew into themselves and were honest. John Martyn is one of the great soul singers because soul is not a genre; it's a feeling.
I only became interested in clothes when I was in my mid-teens. I'd do things like spike my hair and put on a nice shirt, but I'd hardly call myself fashion-conscious. I just don't have the energy.
Sometimes the last thing you want to do is to go on stage and bare your soul in front of hundreds of complete strangers. Singing the same songs night after night can remind you of things you'd rather forget.
I don't discriminate when it comes to melon. I'm very open-minded. I really don't mind; I can't say I like any one better than the other. You can put them all in! A little melon mix salad, and I'm just in heaven.
I think it was definitely a love for the four- or five-part vocal male harmony groups that really took me away. I'd always try and be, like, the fifth Drifter; I'd always try and find another harmony that wasn't there.
You don't want to go and make something, then go out and do shows, if you're not really into it. You don't want to go out there and make people feel like you're grudging playing them a song. That's a disturbing thought.
That's the good thing about music: you can sing about people's lives in its stages and feelings. Some songs can put something in context that you couldn't. They can free your mind or can make you think or can be redeeming.
It's all a progression towards hopefully one day making a record that can be the definitive you can offer. Some bands come in with that at first, and the great bands never really stray from that. I want to earn my stripes.
My best mates when I was 19 were all in their 30s. I used to go to all their house parties, and they were crazier than the guys who were 17, 18. They were so much more liberated than the people who were apparently shackle-free.
People make you feel like a bad guy for asking for seven quid for your album, like you are slapping them in the face, when they'll go and pay two grand for a scarf somebody knitted in a sweat shop and stitched a designer label on.
I like music because... its expressive, you can convey whatever you're thinking through a song. And it's the best respite for me anyway to do it through music. So I like music because you can express and let your soul out through it.
I know some bands that are precious about their new ideas. They're conscious of the fact that people can - even from mobile phones - begin to get clearer and better recordings of the songs... so they're a lot more hesitant to play them.
One of the best things I get to do is meet people that have been to the shows and listened to the music. I still don't indulge in the social media side of things, so that's my way of starting conversations - actually hearing people talk.
I come from Paisley, the same town as David Sneddon, who won 'Fame Academy.' When he was late for his homecoming reception in the town hall, they held an impromptu talent show. I ended up singing some songs, and that's how I was discovered.
I started to learn some common sense. Even just sort of day-to-day things. I started to cook a little bit more and try to learn to fix things around the house. If something breaks down, rather than call a guy, there's got to be more I can do.
When you're waking up every day, and it's all about you, I don't consider that to be a way to live your life if you can help it. I think people who know me know that I find time to enjoy myself and not take life - or myself - too seriously at all.
When we play Jenny Don't Be Hasty, that's cool because everyone really dances. It's between that and when we play Loving You, that's when you give it your all. Well you give it your all for all of it but that's like proper end singing with your full strength put in.
When it comes to the business side of it, as much as you might hate it, the reality is that you give the record company a sort of ownership of your songs, so you've got to make sure you're getting everything you can out of it now, because if you're not, then who is?
I found my mind has changed over the last years. Different vulnerabilities - things that I was never vulnerable to before I am now. And vice-versa. Things I was vulnerable to then are like water off a duck's back. I have a lot less fear. I think I'm getting more determined.