Sam Fender

“I've chronicled a time when I was 17, 18, utterly terrified that you're not gonna get anywhere with whatever you want to do. It's that fear and claustrophobia that I think comes to most people living in small towns. But I am lucky, because I just knew that music was my thing.”

“I got scouted to be the dude in the video for 'Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored.'”

“I love my hometown, but 'Leave Fast' is the way I felt when I was 17, 18 - it's that fear that I'd never be able to do something else.”

“I don't live in London. I live in the place that I sing about.”

“I never want to co-write. People never just write a quarter of a book, do they? I don't think you can get your story across.”

“I recorded 'Play God' in a shed. I don't know how we got it to sound as good as it did.”

“'Poundshop Kardashians' is Newcastle on a Saturday night. Nobody wears coats - it's all muscles and V-necks and fake tan.”

“Pretty much every prime minister since I can remember has made me mad.”

“I'm never going to overestimate the clout of my job.”

“I'm so grateful to everyone back home for believing, and to my band and team for all their hard work.”

“My mam and dad were blasting Steely Dan when I was born; the music hasn't stopped since then.”

“I like to write about stories and life experiences of me, the people around us, and just the things I see on the telly without overcomplicating things.”

“It's impossible to let fame go to your head when you still live in North Shields in a flat with your mum.”

“I'm relentless when it comes to writing and recording.”

“I'm a horrendous cook; my mum does my meals. I can only cook beans on toast with cheese.”

“Music was always ever present when I was growing up, and it's continued to be the most important and intrinsic part of me. It kept me from going off the rails as a kid, and it gave me rare purpose and self-confidence that I couldn't find from anything else.”

“I love my job - I'm going to keep doing it until I die - but there's nothing more soul-destroying than having to cancel a show.”

“The thing about Springsteen, his music, although he's writing about, you know, New Jersey and Asbury Park, all of them places, it's blue-collar towns that, like - it's similar to Newcastle, where I'm from.”

“A lot of my songs are just posing questions, because I'm on a journey to find the answers myself.”

“I messed around with the guitar from the age of about eight, but when I hit 13, it was the only thing I wanted from life.”