My inspiration for songs is just everyday life. I just write down words about things that have happened to me, people I've met.
Paolo Nutini
One of my favourite songs is 'A Message to You, Rudy,' which was done by the Specials.
Music can really help people, help individuals in beautiful ways.
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.
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.
I can't speak much Italian. I do go down well over there, but it's frustrating because I can't really speak it. Even if I do talk, they can't understand my accent, but I should try to learn it.
It's not about someone making a difference on their own; it's about everybody pulling together to make a difference.
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.
I don't mind being criticised, but hearing yourself described as the next James Blunt - that hurts.
I'm not a fan of second-hand or vintage clothes.
I'm always looking for people to play the songs to.
As a kid, I loved to sing along to the Drifters and Otis Redding.
I'm not seeking for answers; I just want to tell stories and state my opinion.
The songs are just an attempt to document what's been happening in my life. If people can relate to what's going on with me, then that's great.
I'm not one to go down that road to say I have some kind of social consciousness.
To sing with Led Zeppelin has allowed me to offer the best places I could afford to my family and friends!
Politicians have an arrogance that I just do not understand. I've seen more constructive debates in high school.
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?
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.
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.
It's a sacred thing, but I do want to get married. I'd love that.
I like to record something pretty much as soon as I have an idea for a song, but I'm on so many buses, I have to record on my mobile.
You walk with a different air if you're wearing something sharp.
My songwriting... it's almost like a kind of self-therapy.
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.
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!
I left school just shy of 17: I'd started going into touring and that situation.
I don't want to slip into Johnny Borrell mode. I don't want to be singing that there's nothing on TV, nothing on the radio.
Love is music, and music is home.
Really, if you've got people who want you to play, you play.
I've met such amazing people in their 40s, in their 60s, 70s, and they completely bely their age on paper.
Always wash your hands, and always tell the truth.
I'm neither here nor there about this Lady Gaga, but she's clearly very passionate about her poker face.
I've always got a notepad on or a voice recorder recording ideas.
I get nervous all the time. Both on and off stage. You just hope it turns into adrenaline.
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.
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 think it was definitely a love for the four- or five-part vocal male harmony groups that really took me away. I'd always try and be, like, the fifth Drifter; I'd always try and find another harmony that wasn't there.
That's the good thing about music: you can sing about people's lives in its stages and feelings. Some songs can put something in context that you couldn't. They can free your mind or can make you think or can be redeeming.
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.
I've always enjoyed the bohemia of Paisley.
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.
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.
Racism is one of the worst forms of torture because it's directed at something you never asked for and something you can't change.
Music is probably one of the most honest things out there - it's feral.
The way you react to each challenge forms who you become.
The people I admire are Tim Buckley and John Martyn - singers that grew into themselves and were honest. John Martyn is one of the great soul singers because soul is not a genre; it's a feeling.
When life hands you melons, eat them.
I thought about going onto the first one, Pop Idol. My mum was saying, 'Go on!' But I decided not to. 'The X Factor,' though, doesn't really seem to be a show about musical talent anymore.
A lot of places think that bigger is better. It's like consumerism is taking everything over.
