I can still see my first dog. For six years he met me at the same place after school and convoyed me home - a service he thought up himself. A boy doesn't forget that sort of association.
I didn't have a lot to do with the first record.
I think it has a lot to do with determination. I treat people the way I want to be treated and believe if you work hard you can have the things you want in life.
I picked and co-wrote the songs that if I was a guy who would be spending my hard-earned money buying an album I would want to hear.
I was so happy and content with in life playing music. Music was always my first job and my day gig was my second job.
I was blessed. I had a great childhood and great parents that loved music and family. I moved from England when I was almost 18 and been on my own ever since and have been trying to make a living in the music business for the past twelve years. A lot of people say I'm an overnight success, but it's an overnight success that's been twelve years in the making.
Obviously everybody knows that I'm an original songwriter and I got my band. And the guys in 'Sugar Money,' no matter what, are part of my family and they always got something to do with me, and I don't care if they just hang out with me.
Working with devices and guitar pedals and mixers and synthesizers is what I do, and I prefer people not focus on that because it's kind of distracting from what the point should be. At least for me, it's to have the primacy of aurality in the experience of that evening.
Coincidence is the language of the stars, for something to happen, so many forces have to be put into action.
My favorite is when you go to Afghanistan and you meet the special forces guys, and they look like these heavily armed surfers. These guys are the best. You see guys dressed as full Afghans, but then wearing a Yankees hat.
I have a long list of things that make me mad.