Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't want to preach to anyone, because if someone preaches to me, I just turn off - I've been preached to my whole life.
Music is a part of someone's soul. Music is a feeling for me. And if that soul is evil, then I don't want anything to do with it.
Initially, I started writing music because I wanted to express my thoughts and get what was going on in my head out to the world.
To me, that's what music entails. It's freedom, it's having the undeniable confidence to express yourself in a way that you know is right.
All my life, I've had a fear of being told what to say, so I'm not telling people what to think. I'm encouraging them to say what they think.
I've always had a lot of energy and had a lot of opinions all my life - people misunderstood that about me being naughty, gobby, or different.
Oasis were massive for me, because of the attitude and what they represented and how outspoken they were. It felt like they were exactly like me.
From a young age, I was always very transparent, and that's why the kids' mums didn't like me. I would tell you if I didn't like your beans on toast.
I've always been enthralled with chaos and mayhem musically, and I loved speaking out and challenging stuff, and I thought, why is my music not representing this?
When I went out to America, and someone wanted to sign me and invest in me, that was a big moment because, all my life, people have been trying to tell me to be different to what I was.
I remember talking about a Mozart song during a music class at school, and I said, 'I wouldn't have done it like that.' I didn't like the way the chords moved. And my teacher told me to get out.
The best thing for me is the amount of DMs and people hitting me up every day saying, 'Your music is providing me with answers.' That blows my mind, because that's what Alex Turner and Eminem were for me.
Now when I step onstage, I have this hour when I can just be completely myself, just a massive ball of energy. Sometimes I get so lost in the performance, people look a little frightened - but that's a good thing.
The connection I have with my fans is so important, and I want to break the boundaries and break the barriers between an artist and a crowd. It is so important, and I learn so much through my fans, and they help me.
The broken heart on my right finger represents me before I figured out who I was, and the full heart on my left is because I'm left-handed, I use that to write my music, and my music helped me obtain my direction in life.
Growing up, I was so inspired by front men like Mick Jagger, Freddie Mercury, and Kurt Cobain - real showmen that put on 'a performance' every time they walk out on stage - so it's important for me to feel like I deliver that.
Teachers, people, and, to be honest, some of my classmates didn't understand me. I was the person they didn't like because I would always speak my mind and had a lot of energy. I'd be bouncing around all the time, being very opinionated.
I would listen to artists like My Chemical Romance, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Blink-182, Paramore... all these bands were so unafraid of being themselves. They talked about their problems and what was going on in their heads. It grabbed and latched on to me, and I felt like I could do that, too.
My generation, we're so smart and opinionated, and we know the world we want to live in; we know the future we want. We're such a liberal, forward-thinking generation that's been held back by an older generation that doesn't understand it, doesn't want the world to progress quickly because of old ideologies.
