Passenger
To be honest, busking was a massive part of becoming aware of homelessness. I used to run into a lot of 'Big Issue' sellers and a lot of people on the street. It really opened my eyes to the kind of life that they live and the options that are open for them - or not, actually.
The big thing is I'm not with a major label. I've been independent since the get-go, and I've been very lucky to get some good advice on keeping hold of copyright and that kind of stuff.
If you're a priority artist, then you get an amazing amount of exposure and money thrown. If you are more niche, then it's not necessarily the way forward. If you want Instagram followers and fame, then the major labels are still really great for that.
I've grown up on American songwriters my whole life - listening to Paul Simon and Bob Dylan and people like John Prine - you know, classic, real songwriters. They've been the lion's share of what I've really focused on as a writer and as influences, too.
If you go back to early folk, it's all storytelling; that's exactly what it is: some guy telling a story in a pub to 50 people with a guitar, you know.
America is a funny place; it's a land of extremes, I think. There's fantastic, and there's gobsmackingly dreadful. In every realm you could imagine, they do extremes very well or badly, depending on how you look at it.
I think we're all survivors, to be honest. I mean, some of us more than others - some of us have to survive far more horrendous things than others. It's all relative: whatever your experience is.
I love that - you get everything from seven-year-olds to 87-year-olds at Passenger gigs.
I'm lucky in the sense that I can write wherever I am - on the bus, in the hotel room, backstage, sitting at home.
When I sat down with all the songs before recording, I realised I'd written a few songs specifically about places in America - there was this song about Detroit and another about Yellowstone National Park. My dad is actually American, so I wrote another song about that side of my family.
'Heart on Fire' didn't do as well as the last record in most territories, but South Africa is one of the places it did really well.
I think, and I don't know if it's because of 'Searching for Sugar Man,' but South Africans seem to not have to go with what's popular but what they like, and that's refreshing.
I spent my life on the road touring, and a lot of the songs are written in tour buses and hotel rooms.
'Hell Or High Water' was written after the end of a relationship, and I do feel like every Passenger album has the obligatory break-up song.
You see all I need is a whisper in a world that only shouts.Collection: Needs
Well you only need the light when it's burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow.Collection: Light
Well if you can’t get what you love, You learn to love the things you’ve got .. If you can’t be what you want, You learn to be the things you’re not .. If you can’t get what you need, You learn to need the things that stop you dreamingCollection: Dream
Life's for the living, so live it, or you're better off dead.Collection: Better Off Dead
If you can't be what you want, you learn to be the thing's you're notCollection: Want
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low.Collection: Feelings
You only know you love her when you let her go.Collection: Let Her Go
Elvis ate America before America ate him.Collection: America