George Ezra

Growing up, I listened to a lot of American singer/songwriters, so a lot of Tom Waits, Paul Simon - also Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. And bands like Vampire Weekend.

When I was growing up, my brother liked the Beatles, and I liked the Rolling Stones. I think if I were a girl, Keith would be the one I fancied.

A lot of what I listened to growing up was blues, but also folk and indie music. So there's this marriage of songs that structurally are quite bluesy. Sound-wise, there's a lot of indie as well. But you can't really say I'm pop-blues, because that's insulting to blues. It just can't exist.

My first instrument was bass, and the first thing that I remember learning to play that was better than a few notes was Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain.' If you're the guy who penned that bass riff, then you should probably be in some sort of fantasy band.

All I wanted to do was to perform my music, so I never really thought about photo shoots or music video shoots or interviews. You can't anticipate those things - you just can't plan this as a job.

You can't plan success with a creative field. So I enjoy it while it's here, and I know it won't be forever. Maybe one day I'll have to go back to flipping burgers, but for now I'm going to enjoy the cool things.

Some people don't care why they are famous; they just want to be famous, and that makes my skin crawl a bit.

I've always been someone who needs someone with them to poke and annoy. I'm useless at being by myself.

Writing and playing songs is something that I've loved doing since the day I started. It's never been a chore; it's always a hobby. To be able to do that from day to day makes me believe I'm a very lucky person.

I've met other famous people, and what blows my mind is that when they get five minutes off, they're partying with other famous people. I wanna see my boys at home.

I actually find it really hard to deal with people looking up to me or being interested in wanting a picture.

The music that I first fell in love with was American music, really. Nothing against British acts - I love them and will forever - but on the whole, it was the art of American storytelling in the kind of folk and blues lyrics that, if you scratch a little bit, there's a heartbreaking story there.