Passenger
Passenger

I don't think I've ever really fitted into the industry and the scene. I feel like I've always been on the cusp.

Passenger
Passenger

I've played in some pretty weird settings; busking puts you in all kinds of situations. I can tell you the most depressing gig I've played was in the North of England. At that time, I was playing with a band. We drove 7 or 8 hours to Carlisle to play a 600 - 700 capacity venue - 9 people showed up.

Passenger
Passenger

I think whenever I've thought something might go well, it hasn't, and when I've thought, 'Oh yeah, just chuck it out there,' that's when it kicks off, so now, I don't claim to understand anything.

Passenger
Passenger

I'd say 99 per cent of the time I write on my own, just with my guitar, and then it's trying to figure out what it needs in a production sense.

Passenger
Passenger

I'm lucky in the sense that I can write wherever I am - on the bus, in the hotel room, backstage, sitting at home.

Passenger
Passenger

I can play the main stage at the Newport Folk Festival in front of 10,000 people and do all the gigs and stuff I want to do. Then I can go home and get toilet paper on a Sunday morning and not get hassled.

Passenger
Passenger

I think you've got to be careful with social media. You can get addicted to the buzz of people liking and commenting. It's exhausting.

Passenger
Passenger

If you're a priority artist, then you get an amazing amount of exposure and money thrown. If you are more niche, then it's not necessarily the way forward. If you want Instagram followers and fame, then the major labels are still really great for that.

Passenger
Passenger

I think expectations are sometimes dangerous things. I think the only thing you can be sure of is that it won't go to plan. I think that's the only thing that's definite.

Passenger
Passenger

I've spent the last 10 years constantly touring and haven't had much reason to stick around anywhere. I'm 34 now, and I've got a girlfriend and a house and two cats. I don't want to run away; I like where I'm at.

Passenger
Passenger

I've grown up on American songwriters my whole life - listening to Paul Simon and Bob Dylan and people like John Prine - you know, classic, real songwriters. They've been the lion's share of what I've really focused on as a writer and as influences, too.

Passenger
Passenger

I write so much and I release so much music that I think I'm less precious about that stuff than a lot of people.

Passenger
Passenger

I'd get a train to some town and wander about to find a decent spot. Sometimes I'd play for three hours; sometimes I'd get moved on after three songs.

Passenger
Passenger

I dropped out of school at 17 'cause all I wanted to do was play music. I had odd jobs on the side of gigging until I turned 22, when I was lucky to start doing this full time.

Passenger
Passenger

When I wrote 'Let Her Go,' it's not like I was doing anything different. I was just writing a song as I would any other day of the year; it just so happened that this one resonated with people.

Passenger
Passenger

I love that - you get everything from seven-year-olds to 87-year-olds at Passenger gigs.

Passenger
Passenger

I'm very much of that old-school mentality of believing that if it works with an acoustic guitar and a vocal, then it should work within any format - and especially when most of my live work is just guitar and vocals, so it really does have to work with only that.

Passenger
Passenger

I believe it's important to put all of your energy into what you're doing rather than doing an office job and trying to muster up energy for music. It's been a real blessing to play music full time.

Passenger
Passenger

Some songs take months to get right, but 'Let Her Go' was so easy. I was no more pleased with it than any other song I'd written.

Passenger
Passenger

You see a lot of bands and a lot of artists making that mistake: They become successful for doing something, and then they change everything. They change the people; they change the approach. And then, all of a sudden, almost the essence of what you do is gone.