George Ezra

“When I was younger, I used to love the idea of writing songs and performing them live. But that was all I thought about. I didn't think about people getting to know my face.”

“I don't know if I'm relentlessly cheerful... more consistently relaxed.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I don't know how convincing I'd be as a soul cat. I'm a scrawny British kid.”

“I'm good in summer. My birthday is in summer. I don't like it when it's too hot, but, you know, blue skies, I think people genuinely loosen up a bit, and it's nicer.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“When I was 15 or so, I made a conscious decision to try and sing with a big voice. Everybody I listened to had these big voices, and I wanted to try it. The blessing is that I could.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“When people say the words 'singer-songwriter,' I think they have an image in their heads of someone with an acoustic guitar who is a bit woe-is-me. I'd like to think that I'm not one of those. I'm quite a happy person.”

“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.”

“I hate getting a McDonald's. I'm not a McDonald's person: you just feel crap afterwards.”

“You don't want to start writing songs about how your Twitter followers are going up, because one day Twitter won't exist, and you'll feel like an idiot.”

“My first kiss was actually in a graveyard.”

“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.”