Ben Howard

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.

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.

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.

I enjoy the sea more than I enjoy surfing.

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.

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.

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.

I don't really like encouraging people to go on the Internet too much, we're constantly distracted with the Internet and computers.

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.

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.

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 am really opinionated when I want to be but I'm just not loud.

I don't want to ruin my life with paparazzi and all of that.

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.

It's amazing how English music manages to travel to America and obviously, American music in the U.K. is massive.

I kind of feel that as soon as you've played a song to one other person, then it's something you share together.

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.

We adapt very quickly to things, don't we?

The only thing you can worry about is pleasing yourself and that's probably more impossible than pleasing other people.

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.

New York is one of my favorite places in the world, Brooklyn especially.

It's great to be part of the whole Ibiza Rocks vibe. Ibiza's always had a big gap when it comes to bands with guitars so it's great to be included really.

Without a doubt, Ibiza is one of my favourite places on the planet.

In England, it's usually cold. So surfing is more of an adventure where you're floating around in a big, dark, stormy sea rather than the California notion of girls in bikinis on beaches. It's really going into the fray. I like it because it gives you the extra time and space you need to think.

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.

For me, recording was a lot about honing my guitar skills and honing my singing.

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 think as soon as you start believing you're doing something superior to other people, then you start losing the plot.

I don't know if I'm particularly shy.

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.

When you're playing guitar, it's the tiny little nuances that make the difference. For me, obviously, tunings is a huge one.

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'm terrified of routine.

I guess I'm the sort who, if I find something comfortable, tends to push against it.

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.

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.

John Martyn is my biggest hero. My mom got me into his music when I was a kid. I've looked up to him more than anyone as a songwriter. And Bert Jansch is one of the pillars of acoustic music, the holy grail.

It's nice to be the centre of attention among many women.

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.

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.

I get really angsty if I've got songs building up and I haven't gotten them recorded.

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.

When you first sit down to write songs, you have to be selfish.

To have a sort of career in music still kind of freaks me out every now and then.

I've been to some kind of weird places in America. I've been to Idaho.

I love playing music - and live especially - and I love being on the road. It gets in your blood.

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.

We are taught these days that being famous is more important than actually doing something.

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.

I need some time and space to make sure I'm on the right track with myself and playing music I want to play.