I spent two years playing open mic nights in Brighton, and I heard more and more people saying, 'You should give it a go in London.'
I like it when things crescendo to a huge moment like 'Hold Back the River.'
I like drawing people in the airport or on the bus or in venues. I like catching people in the moment. It's a similar inspiration for me in terms of songwriting.
Growing up in Hitchin was comfortable and easy enough. My parents had some great records - and some not-so-great ones - and that's where I got introduced to Motown and the Stones and Springsteen.
Growing up, when I was at live shows, I was always hoping someone would come out on stage and say, 'The guitarist is sick and couldn't make it... does anybody know how to play all the songs?' That was always my little dream. It was a massively inspiring thing to be in a space with live shows.
I love the intimate, single spotlight, troubadour-y quiet, delicate moments. But I also love Springsteen and screaming and shouting.
I'm going to take each day and each thing and each gig as it comes at me.
I do some solo, acoustic stuff, but I also like plugging in my electric guitar and playing loud with a band.
As a singer-songwriter, a solo artist with a guitar, I can only write so many weepie little bedroom songs.
The Internet is the Wild West of the world, where anybody can throw anything down. Everything can be as relevant as the next thing; it doesn't matter who posts it. In that environment, the Critics' Choice is still very important.
When I was 16, I spent a year pushing trollies around a car park, and that wasn't fun. I didn't love working in a supermarket; it wasn't for me. It is for some people, and that's totally cool.
I hope to have a long career, and I don't want to be defined by things that aren't the music.
I loved pop music as a little kid. Things like the Black Eyed Peas. If it had a catchy chorus, I was into it.
There was a guitar that my uncle owned and never learnt to play. He sold it to my dad, and when I heard 'Layla', that was the tune that really grabbed me. I said to my dad, 'Wait, there's a guitar, right?'
Being exhausted is all part of the fun. I'm cool with it. I'm not going to wish that it would slow down.
When I was 15, if anything, I thought I was going to be a Delta bluesman, which is so ridiculous.
I bought a guitar CD-ROM because we had a new computer, but I had no attention span for that. I spent about three hours on it desperate to be brilliant. Eventually, I got some proper lessons.
Up until the last minute, it was art and drawing for me. That was the first real and natural thing I thought I was good at and loved to do. But I developed a similar kind of love for music.
Both Springsteen and Michael Jackson, who had these huge productions, could always scale them back down to just a song and a melody. All of that influences me. I also try to be a fictional writer, and sometimes I get close, but the things that resonate the most with me - and with everyone else - is what's real.
How I set myself apart is by creating the sort of real and honest music, which is who I'm also trying to be.
