My dad was a blues musician around Dublin when I was a baby, so the only music I would listen to growing up was John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. It's music that feels like home to me.

If I fall into a city, I fall into a scene, and I just don't want to get distracted and enjoy myself too much. There's too much work to be done.

There was a moment, a few weeks after I signed, that it actually hit me. I was signed to a major label.

Being 16 is the worst time to be anybody, there is not enough tea in China to persuade me to be that young again. I wasn't very happy with myself.

Growing up in Ireland, there are a lot of aspects of God that hang in the air. And my music reflects that.

I look at all good things with a bit of a dark lens, I suppose, especially with something like love.

I wish I had more time to read. I'm always traveling.

It was amazing for me to even perform at the Grammys, but to do so alongside Annie Lennox was a truly incredible honor.

By the time I was in my teens, I was listening to Delta blues and jazz.

All songs, all pieces of art, reflect the world that they were made in and the values of those artists and the hopes and aspirations of the people who listen to that music and who made that music.

I was definitely drawn to the mythology of one man, one voice, and one guitar.

I was essentially raised on blues music. My dad was a blues musician around Dublin when I was a baby, so the only music I would listen to growing up was John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. It's music that feels like home to me.

I don't like false happy endings, and I don't think the real world is such a forgiving place.

I used to almost not look forward to recording, because it was like, 'Okay, what am I going to have to sacrifice?'

I'm still finding my feet in many ways as a performer. I'm not an extrovert, and certainly the attention isn't what drew me to it, and I find that quite jarring at times. I used to stress a lot about shows and get palpitations before shows, but eventually you learn to love it, and it is a thrill.

Someone had an eye on me as I was leaving high school. I had a chance to record demos, but they were kind of wanting to make a pop singer out of me, of the 'X Factor' variety. I didn't feel comfortable with it. I wanted to be a songwriter.

The main thing is, I can't stay up late partying when I'm on tour. That's not good for my voice or my health in general.

The public discourse online is not done through the polite language of debate.

I always thought of myself as a very, very obscure artist.

I love the sound of voices singing together, congregational singing, anything like gospel, or folk, or sea shanties. I spent quite a bit of time in choirs growing up, and in the world-touring music group, Anuna. It's a sound with very rich texture, voices singing together.

You just feel like you're doing a job that you want to be doing, and then one day, somebody asks you a question like that: 'What's it like to be famous?' It doesn't really mean anything. The only difference is some people stop you and ask you for photographs.

It's so easy to look forward when you're travelling; you spend your life looking forward, thinking, 'What's next? When do I get time to work on my music again? Or when do I get time to get my 'normal' life back?'

I think it's very hard to write things about being joyful. I find that quite difficult. I think when you're happy, you don't want to write songs; you just want to enjoy being happy.

It's funny: Your relationship changes with a song over time. After a year or so, you're a different person, so your songs, you don't connect with them like you did.