For me, recording was a lot about honing my guitar skills and honing my singing.
— Ben Howard
I think as soon as you start believing you're doing something superior to other people, then you start losing the plot.
When you're playing guitar, it's the tiny little nuances that make the difference. For me, obviously, tunings is a huge one.
It's the bane of my life and my existence, people telling me to be a little more succinct with what I write.
I just write about myself all the time, which is a funny one, because I don't really like sharing much stuff with other people, apart from music.
I meet a lot of people who are awkward around me now. I was always embarrassed about that; the more attention I got, the less I wanted it and the more it would manifest in a physical way and I would be hunched over about it. I'm just starting to realise now that it's not my problem, it's somebody else's problem.
You have to write songs for yourself and not worry about what other people are going to say or think about it. But ultimately it does go out to a lot of people and it will make its way into their lives, and that's really special.
I've been to some kind of weird places in America. I've been to Idaho.
We are taught these days that being famous is more important than actually doing something.
With music you spend so much time standing on stage in front of an audience you get a false sense of your own importance. It's worth keeping that in check.
As a musician you're always your own worst critic and you're always digging into your songs and evaluating your own self-worth of things.
Mumford & Sons have really opened up everyone's ears to music with instruments again, acoustic-based music... it's reassuring for people like me who have been brought up on acoustic guitar.
I am really opinionated when I want to be but I'm just not loud.
I've never been much of a city person, but I love going to places for a few days and being able to experience them.
I kind of feel that as soon as you've played a song to one other person, then it's something you share together.
If you had told me many years ago that I'd have been headlining Longitude, or festivals like it, I would have thought it was unimaginable.
I think New York City is a lot more European than the rest of America; it's much easier for an English person to wrap their head around it.
We'd get residencies in the local pubs. It was just an excuse to have a free tab at the bar, and then at some point people started chucking me a few quid for it. There was no game plan to any of it.
I don't know if I'm particularly shy.
I listen to other people's stuff and, more and more, you realise how much is layered and how many different guitar parts there are.
I guess I'm the sort who, if I find something comfortable, tends to push against it.
I find it funny how at British festivals there are such inflated egos. It's rare that I even talk to anyone at a lot of them.
The music you play, it's never intended for other people, so it's quite amazing dealing with stuff now, because obviously any tracks I write, a lot of folks are going to hear. It definitely plays on my mind quite a lot.
When you first sit down to write songs, you have to be selfish.
I love playing music - and live especially - and I love being on the road. It gets in your blood.
I don't want to ruin my life with paparazzi and all of that.
I enjoy the sea more than I enjoy surfing.
Songs became little time periods of my life, little tales from certain periods, and you build these kingdoms and memories... they're all little personal relationships and places that I've stored in my head.
Coming from the U.K., you realize how quiet England is, and as soon as you get to America, it's really big and brash and loud out here, and South by Southwest was the epitome of that.
People may say I'm difficult but I'm not. I'm a bit shy but it's funny how I can sing in front of an audience and get up on a stage.
It's a privilege to be from England and be able to come over to America and have people listening to music and really enjoying it.
The kind of fans I have are those who allow the songs to be part of their lives; indeed, it's as if the songs aren't mine anymore.
The only thing you can worry about is pleasing yourself and that's probably more impossible than pleasing other people.
New York is one of my favorite places in the world, Brooklyn especially.
I won #40 in an open mic competition when I was 17 and thought, 'This is amazing!'
You realise that people do things differently to each other and, more and more, I realise that there's no right or wrong. You can be a pop star and singing cabaret, and the entertainment of it is your flamboyance, it is your attitude.
I'm terrified of routine.
I live inside my own brain, most of the time. So where I am physically doesn't really bother me - if the physical place sparks something in my imagination, then it's a good place.
It's nice to be the centre of attention among many women.
I get really angsty if I've got songs building up and I haven't gotten them recorded.
To have a sort of career in music still kind of freaks me out every now and then.
So many people have told me that it's quite different playing out in the States, and obviously, as a musician, touring in the States is kind of the Holy Grail.
People have to learn... what do you really want from a live show? Do you want people to stand there and entertain you or to challenge themselves and you? It's live music, it's alive.
It's so bizarre, being in the rolling water, but I like how insignificant it makes me feel, that's a good head space to be in.
I don't really like encouraging people to go on the Internet too much, we're constantly distracted with the Internet and computers.
The world is a very noisy place and so I don't need to shout about things. There are so many people shouting and a lot of people get lost in it.
I can be among the general public and next to me is a big picture of my face, but no one notices apart from my friends.
It's amazing how English music manages to travel to America and obviously, American music in the U.K. is massive.
We adapt very quickly to things, don't we?
I don't think I've ever been particularly careerist about music.
