You once said you ‘wanted to write more personal lyrics aiming to connect more directly with your live audience’. Why did you feel you had to accomplish this as a solo artist instead of in a group?
I think that the connection you have with the crowd when you're in a band - or the type of band that I was in anyway, is a bit different to the connection you feel when you're performing alone with an acoustic guitar. They're both equally viable, but in a rock band I think most of the time the crowd are feeding off the energy and rawness of the music and the kinetic force, as opposed to the intricacy of the lyrics. I've always been turned on by word play and storytelling, and when you're doing gigs where everything is turned up to 11 and the guitarist is turning his amp up to outdo the drummer and the bass player is turning his amp up to outdo both of them, the details in the lyrics tend to get lost somewhere along the way. People would come up to me after gigs and say "I loved that last song, haven't got a clue what you were singing about though", and to me that kinda defeated the purpose of spending so much time on lyrics and trying to relate with an audience in that way. The pen is mightier than the sword and all that.
As your popularity has grown do you feel any pressure to be a role model and act a certain way when it comes to your music?
Not really. I think people are exposed to so much these days in modern society that I don't really think there's much that I could teach them that's gonna lead them astray! I don't really believe in pressure anyway, it's just a state of mind. I've always adhered to just being yourself and what will be, will be.
One of your goals has been to move to the US permanently. What do you feel the US can offer your career vs. continuing in England?
Primarily I've always wanted to go to the states because personally, I just really like it there. I love the attitude and the spirit of people over there and I generally find most Americans to be very positive and optimistic, and I just find that really inspiring. Career-wise, the UK music scene is heavily centered around trends and fashion and wearing the right type of jeans, whereas I think that as the US is so big, good songs generally transcend all the little fads and trends and that’s mainly what people care about. That, and as well as wanting to embrace the whole spirit of The Beatles and stuff and not wanting to just be confined to our little green island. It's not just about the US though to be honest. I'm a creative person and I want to travel and see the world and if I can combine that with music then I'm a happy man.
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