I got thrust a guitar by my mum as a little kid and always played it. I sort of fell in and out of love with it, there were times when I hated it when I was ten and was forced to go to lessons.

I have problems with guitars, I hammer away at it sometimes and I also do little intimate picks, I'm always looking at new guitars and little extra tweaks and stuff, I like to mix it up a bit.

I think it's important to find your own voice in your own space.

That's the biggest thing we're excited about: to be in America and have shows sell out is an incredible thing.

I think there are definitely positives when you go back to the familiar, because it's something you don't have to think about when you know the place. But sometimes on the other hand, it can be quite unchallenging.

I never understood how one could write a whole book: It is so technically challenging, and it's incredible the way writers put entire worlds inside of them on such a large scale. I tend to have that same feeling when I listen to music - it daunts me and makes me feel quite unsettled listening to so much talent and ambition.

Surfing and music have always been two separate sides of my life. I'm quite a fun-loving person most of the time, but I feel like I always get the serious side out when I'm playing music, and then I have fun the rest of the time when I get in the sea.

The U.K. is pretty good at being environmentally conscious.

I like slightly obscure places, where the waves may not be world class, but you can tie some culture in with your surf trip.

I met Xavier Rudd at a surf festival in England.

I've surfed on Lake Michigan.

I went around driving myself to gigs everywhere, and eventually, people just kept coming back.

In my late teens, I fell out of love with music - you know how kids are, when you're encouraged to do something, you rebel. But then I picked it back up again.

I studied to be a journalist, but I don't think I would have made a very good one. I don't have the work ethic.

Loud sounds are everywhere.

In the countryside, you're always hearing sheep, birds, tractors and farm equipment.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I don't think I've ever been particularly careerist about music.

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

If you had told me many years ago that I'd have been headlining Longitude, or festivals like it, I would have thought it was unimaginable.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I've never been much of a city person, but I love going to places for a few days and being able to experience them.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I enjoy the sea more than I enjoy surfing.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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