Sam Fender

I'm so grateful to everyone back home for believing, and to my band and team for all their hard work.

I love my job - I'm going to keep doing it until I die - but there's nothing more soul-destroying than having to cancel a show.

I put enough pressure on myself already - I can sit here and work myself into an anxiety-filled breakdown without worrying what everyone else is going to think.

I try my best not to be preachy.

My mam and dad were blasting Steely Dan when I was born; the music hasn't stopped since then.

Pretty much every prime minister since I can remember has made me mad.

The negative effects of greedy politicians have haunted the north-east for years; it's very apparent.

I'm asking questions that most people are asking, but just putting a melody or a song to it.

The Cure wrote 'Boys Don't Cry,' and it's the same today: as a boy, you're not meant to show your emotions, but if you don't have a job or any prospects, you're going to be depressed, and it will be much worse if you can't express that. I hate the term because it's become a buzzword, but it's toxic masculinity.

I'm a horrendous cook; my mum does my meals. I can only cook beans on toast with cheese.

My brother was a drummer, and he was always, like, smashing the kit around when I was a kid, and my dad was, like, one of them old musicians, and he played in, like, loads of different bands in the '70s and '80s. Him and my brother were kind of like my main inspirations.

I recorded 'Play God' in a shed. I don't know how we got it to sound as good as it did.

My dad was a club musician. He was always playing guitar and playing loads of soul records and '60s rock n' roll. Whenever he used to cook, he used to play Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, The Kinks, and the Spencer Davis Group - a lot of really earthy things.

I'm never going to overestimate the clout of my job.

A lot of my songs are just posing questions, because I'm on a journey to find the answers myself.

I remember specifically, for me, as a kid growing up or as a young teenager, if I ever cried or got upset in front of anybody, I would be so humiliated.

I got scouted to be the dude in the video for 'Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored.'

I would cry if I met Bruce Springsteen, man. I don't think I'd be able to handle it.

I write all my own songs, so if it goes wrong, I don't co-write anything. It's all going to fall on me.

I've got a band that I tour with, and they're not session musicians; they're my friends.

Musicians - we're not doctors. We're not saving people's lives. We're not going out and changing the world. We're not coming up with cancer cures. We're not any of that. They're the real heroes of the world.

I think I got stopped on the train once by a kid, and that was the first time I realised I had fans. He was shaking. I just reassured him that I'm an idiot and nothing special, so he didn't have to be nervous. It was very sweet.

When I was about 18, I started playing restaurants for £150 a night. I felt like a millionaire.

As soon as I had the opportunity to wear a suit, I took it, like when I was at sixth form and had to dress smartly, I couldn't wait to get a suit on. I've always loved dressing up.

I'm the worst. I get on my Instagram, put up a picture of my face looking all cheekbones and blue steel, and get massive dopamine hits when I see the likes come in.

I think I'm the last generation that remembers life before the smartphone. I'm going to be one of them old geezers going, 'You know, when I was a kid, we used to play with sticks.'

The reality is, the only thing I can control is whether my songs are good and if I can turn up and sing. All the rest is background noise.

I'm relentless when it comes to writing and recording.

Even when a Geordie is trying to be nasty, it doesn't sound that threatening.

I never want to co-write. People never just write a quarter of a book, do they? I don't think you can get your story across.

Back in the day, you could have a crap gig, and nobody would film you. Now, everybody's got an iPhone - you have a bad day, and it's going on the Internet.

I'm not like a university-educated scholar. I just sing what I see.

I'll always just be stupid boy, and I'm happy with that.

'Poundshop Kardashians' is Newcastle on a Saturday night. Nobody wears coats - it's all muscles and V-necks and fake tan.

I think the best writing is full of honesty and conviction. A lot of people are afraid to reveal much of themselves.

I've been lucky enough to support some absolute legends and incredible songwriters over the years, including Hozier, Daughter, Willy Mason, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Nick Mulvey, and Benjamin Francis Leftwich.

The music industry as a whole needs to genuinely make a conscious effort to look after people's physical and mental health.

I think honesty is an important thing when writing a song. If you can't sing it with conviction, then no-one else is going to believe it.

I was probably the only kid in school that had long hair.

There are a lot of challenges we are facing, like how you are supposed to react to emotional stress.

When you have these moments where a song connects with people and creates a conversation, it's quite a humbling experience because it's like, 'Maybe there is a little bit more weight to this job than I thought there ever was before.' Which was wonderful that that happened with 'Dead Boys.'

The thing about Springsteen, his music, although he's writing about, you know, New Jersey and Asbury Park, all of them places, it's blue-collar towns that, like - it's similar to Newcastle, where I'm from.

It's impossible to let fame go to your head when you still live in North Shields in a flat with your mum.

I write from the perspective of an early 20s kid who is trying to grasp an idea of what the hell is going on.

I wanted to change my name when I first started because I thought, 'No-one is going to believe that it is my name.'

I was told not to cry as a kid.

I love my hometown, but 'Leave Fast' is the way I felt when I was 17, 18 - it's that fear that I'd never be able to do something else.

I messed around with the guitar from the age of about eight, but when I hit 13, it was the only thing I wanted from life.

I've chronicled a time when I was 17, 18, utterly terrified that you're not gonna get anywhere with whatever you want to do. It's that fear and claustrophobia that I think comes to most people living in small towns. But I am lucky, because I just knew that music was my thing.

It's so vacuous, this job. You're constantly looking at pictures of yourself, talking about yourself. Then I come back home, and all my mates want to talk about is me because I've been hanging out with Elton John and stuff.