A few times, I’ve thought about doing them again, but it’s just kind of never happened. I’ve just sort of gone the path of becoming a recording artist I guess.
My first Top of the Pops I didn’t want to do. I was terrified. I’d never done television before. Seeing the video afterwards was like watching myself die.
Artists shouldn’t be made famous. They have this huge aura of almost god-like quality about them, just because their craft makes a lot of money. And at the same time it is a forced importance… It is man-made so the press can feed off it.
It’s not that I don’t like American pop; I’m a huge admirer of it, but I think my roots came from a very English and Irish base. Is it all sort of totally non-American sounding.
If you believe in what you do and you really want to be in music, just stick at it. It’s always a learning process. Enjoy it because I think making music is a privilege, really. In an ideal world, it should also always be fun. As much as possible, make it fun.
Irish folk is probably the biggest influence musically that I’ve ever had. My mother’s Irish. And when I was very young, both my brothers were very into traditional music, English and Irish. They were always playing music, so I was always brought up with it.
I think what is great is that if anything that I do is interesting to somebody else, then I really don’t think it matters at all what I had originally intended.
I had friends but I was spending a great deal of my time alone and for me that was vital because there’s an awful lot you learn about yourself when you’re alone.
