I started to learn some common sense. Even just sort of day-to-day things. I started to cook a little bit more and try to learn to fix things around the house. If something breaks down, rather than call a guy, there's got to be more I can do.
I went through a phase of buying a lot of masks, as anyone who has been to a party at the house will testify.
One of the best things I get to do is meet people that have been to the shows and listened to the music. I still don't indulge in the social media side of things, so that's my way of starting conversations - actually hearing people talk.
With the first album, there was a lot of angst. I was very naive. I thought I was on top of the whole thing, but I really didn't know what I was getting into.
I never, ever thought I would get to say I was opening a show for the Bay City Rollers.
I love melon! I don't love melon; that's a bit... Melon's my favorite fruit.
I'm not one to go down that road to say I have some kind of social consciousness.
When it comes to the business side of it, as much as you might hate it, the reality is that you give the record company a sort of ownership of your songs, so you've got to make sure you're getting everything you can out of it now, because if you're not, then who is?
Music is a good way to channel your fragile, vulnerable, needy side, but it's also something to rejoice in.
I've learned stuff, and I've forgotten stuff, but what I do know is that it really is all about the fans.
I know some bands that are precious about their new ideas. They're conscious of the fact that people can - even from mobile phones - begin to get clearer and better recordings of the songs... so they're a lot more hesitant to play them.
Really, if you've got people who want you to play, you play.
My songwriting... it's almost like a kind of self-therapy.
Music is probably one of the most honest things out there - it's feral.
I don't discriminate when it comes to melon. I'm very open-minded. I really don't mind; I can't say I like any one better than the other. You can put them all in! A little melon mix salad, and I'm just in heaven.
I've met such amazing people in their 40s, in their 60s, 70s, and they completely bely their age on paper.
I'm not a fan of second-hand or vintage clothes.
When you open your mind up, and you go into a creative state, you can't just switch if off. When you have an idea, a creative impulse, and then you ignore it, it can keep you up when you just want to go to your bed - which is why it's great to have voice recorders on your phone!
You've got to make sure that you don't have an airbrushed picture making you look like a 15-year-old cherub when your lyrics suggest otherwise.
As I'm getting older, I work out what I want and what I need. And I just need to go home and see the people I love and write.
One of my ambitions is to move to Tuscany. I like the idea of getting a vineyard. I love being under the sun and being casual and comfortable. That's my idea of heaven.
Whatever I do, I like to be the one doing it. I don't just like to get someone in to run it and put a name to it.
People make you feel like a bad guy for asking for seven quid for your album, like you are slapping them in the face, when they'll go and pay two grand for a scarf somebody knitted in a sweat shop and stitched a designer label on.
Maybe it's the way that I do music, but I was never in a cool indie band or hung out with all the cool arty kids when I came to London.
When you're waking up every day, and it's all about you, I don't consider that to be a way to live your life if you can help it. I think people who know me know that I find time to enjoy myself and not take life - or myself - too seriously at all.
You should have something to say, an idea you want to get out, and if you don't, just get out of the way, 'cause there's so many great musicians and writers that are in the queue.
Sometimes people don't know what is behind the words they use. But an innocent little remark at school can affect you later in life.
I write on the acoustic guitar, I write some on the piano, but I've been messing around with these guitar pedals and drum machines, educating myself in that world.
It's all a progression towards hopefully one day making a record that can be the definitive you can offer. Some bands come in with that at first, and the great bands never really stray from that. I want to earn my stripes.
I come from Paisley, the same town as David Sneddon, who won 'Fame Academy.' When he was late for his homecoming reception in the town hall, they held an impromptu talent show. I ended up singing some songs, and that's how I was discovered.
My father was very encouraging.
I remember I wanted to be Zorro, but I also wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I obviously had ideas above my station.
I like to indulge all the facets of my personality. There's none that I don't think, in a way, I would want to take away from.
Sometimes it's good to just sing and let the words come out. Whatever comes out is valid because it's what you were thinking.
I just want people to leave a show and go, 'That was the most rockin' show I've ever seen.' I hope people can just roll with me a little bit - you know?
When life hands you melons, eat them.
I'm in the highest bracket. There's no way that a 22-year-old should be hit for that amount of money when he's got his whole life ahead of him.
To be honest, the first time round, I didn't think 'Fame Academy' was the worst premise in the world. You got people on, and they would write songs and develop themselves as artists. But then, instead of getting a little bit more credible, it got a little bit more ridiculous.
I am not steeped in all that angst. I'm never going to be Sid Vicious.
You don't want to go and make something, then go out and do shows, if you're not really into it. You don't want to go out there and make people feel like you're grudging playing them a song. That's a disturbing thought.
I've never had anything as formal as vocal lessons.
Some people have just got a capacity for creativity that's unbelievable!
None of us don't have a vice.
I only became interested in clothes when I was in my mid-teens. I'd do things like spike my hair and put on a nice shirt, but I'd hardly call myself fashion-conscious. I just don't have the energy.
As a kid, I loved to sing along to the Drifters and Otis Redding.
I'm always looking for people to play the songs to.
I was lucky to move around different cultures at an early age and have experience of different lifestyles.
My best mates when I was 19 were all in their 30s. I used to go to all their house parties, and they were crazier than the guys who were 17, 18. They were so much more liberated than the people who were apparently shackle-free.
To sing with Led Zeppelin has allowed me to offer the best places I could afford to my family and friends!
