00:00For me, being able to do what I love every single day, the trade-off is the fame.
00:05Like that's the part that's actually the...
00:08I know that's cliche to say that that's the downside of it,
00:10but that's the part that most people think is the thing that they want,
00:13whereas I think if you do what you love every day,
00:16that's actually what you should aim for, basically.
00:30I always wanted to play music, I always knew I could make a living doing music.
00:39I don't think it was I want to be successful, I think it was I want to get by.
00:43I know I can play a guitar at a wedding once a week and be able to sort of pay rent.
01:00I learned every word of it back to front by the age I was 10,
01:08and he raps very fast and very melodically and very percussively,
01:11and it helped me get rid of the stutter.
01:19My relationship with music growing up was, I think, just obsessive.
01:25I was obsessed. It was the only thing I cared about, the only thing I did,
01:28the only thing I listened to, the only thing I talked about.
01:31I did not care about school, I did not care about grades.
01:43I arrived in London and realised that people do this as they're living,
01:46and they're better than me, like much better than me.
01:49And my thought process was like, OK, I can't out-sing or out-write these people,
01:55but I know I can out-work them. I know I can play more shows than you.
01:58I know I can write more songs than you.
02:00I know I can take all my time and focus it on this thing.
02:12I knew a lot of the promoters of the Open Mic Nights.
02:14I knew a lot of the singer-songwriters from the Open Mic Nights.
02:16There was a lot of fans that would come to gig after gig.
02:19One of my best friends now, Daryl, was this American fan who just came to a lot of my gigs.
02:24And one day I was like, can I crash? And he was like, sure.
02:26Like, you're not going to say to a 17-year-old kid, no, you can't have a place to stay.
02:30So I was very lucky in the sense of people giving me sofas and spare rooms every now and then.
02:47I saw YouTube as like a business card to your live show.
02:53So I would film things and have them put on YouTube.
02:57Someone would go online and be like, I quite like that song, I'm going to see it live.
03:00And it sort of built up that way.
03:05I was selling CDs at this point and I literally just kept cash in my bag.
03:09It was just CDs and cash from gigs.
03:11So I counted the cash. I had enough money to buy a ticket.
03:14I bought a ticket.
03:15I made my mum cry because it was the first time I'd left the country on my own.
03:20I remember leaving and flying to Los Angeles, getting there, going straight to Inglewood
03:26and playing on stage and obviously being a British kid with a small acoustic guitar
03:32who raps in Inglewood at a poetry night.
03:35It stood out like a sore thumb, but in a good way.
03:42And one of the nights was this place called The Foxhole, which is Jamie Foxx's club.
03:47Jamie Foxx's manager was there and said, we liked your performance.
03:49We're going to get you on Jamie's radio show.
03:51So I went to do Jamie's radio show and he said, really liked it.
03:54Come to my house and use my studio.
03:55Went to his house, lived there for a bit.
04:19And trust me, I'll give it.
04:21Darling, come and set the tone.
04:23If you feel me falling, won't you let me know?
04:27Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
04:31Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
04:33Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
04:40I found a love for me.
04:47Someone said you disappeared in 2016.
04:49Like, I didn't.
04:51I was actually probably more visible than I ever was because I was out and about doing stuff.
04:54But I feel like if you don't post on social media, no one thinks that you're alive.
05:03It's a pretty song.
05:04I've never heard it before.
05:05It's a new one.
05:06I was a big fan of Game of Thrones, but I spent ages trying to get mates into it.
05:10I would literally invite friends around my house to watch the entirety of season one with them
05:15to be like, you will like this.
05:16And then obviously it became this thing.
05:18Oh, that makes me sound so like, I liked it before it was cool.
05:22Baby, we found love right where we are.
05:28And we found love.
05:31Yeah, she was the year below me.
05:32All the girls in my year always just dated guys from the year above.
05:36And that was just how it worked.
05:37Even though, like, there's like a year's difference.
05:41It's just like, oh, my God, he's a year older.
05:52I do pop star shit.
05:53Like, I do go to L.A. every now and then, go to wanky restaurants with people.
05:58And, you know, that is a side of my life.
06:00But I also lived in the place that I grew up with my wife who grew up there,
06:04with my friends who grew up there.
06:20It's very important for me to write my own songs, because I think as an artist,
06:24music is obviously expression of self.
06:26I write songs because they make me feel better.
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