Sam Fender Quotes

When I do an hour-and-a-half show, if I don't improvise 20 minutes worth of new material each night, I feel I've let myself down.

I think it has been a weird mistake to have people with their own music careers going on and judging people because when they're too critical, it affects them. They don't want to be that honest, because they need to keep their appearance up.

I've wanted to perform my entire life. I found a paper I wrote in kindergarten class about what I wanted to be when I grew up - and I wrote 'a famous singer!'

I always tend to think of all of my shows as possibly my last show. I'm like a junior Springsteen, without the underbite.

I still do lots of gigs where I'm the support act and people are chatting through my set, but I've got better at grabbing attention. I mean, my parents would play on bills with people like Judas Priest and get booed all the way through. But they stuck it out, got tough.

And being away and not performing for a long time and really connecting with my audience for a long time, I have a great responsibility to myself and to them to do it exactly the way the process was when I was young.

With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That's why we're such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, 'Are people interested?' But I think our band has something and they know we don't just put albums out. We do think about it.

I went from a playing in a bar on a bar stool for free beer and tip money, where people weren't paying attention to me, to now I've got their attention. It's up to me to what I feed them with my music. It's up to me how I do that. I've put a lot of thought into how great the songs are, and how I want people to perceive me.

Originally I considered myself a singer.

If you want to be a legitimate artist, it's more important what you say no to.

My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult.

As an artist, you have to maintain focus and eliminate the distraction of second-guessing yourself based on the opinions of others.

On the other hand, I'm very tolerant as well. I expect that everybody can play what they want. I'm only not tolerant when it comes to myself and what is presented on my album that I have to listen to for the rest of my life.

We didn't have music videos. You weren't an overnight sensation. You had to work at it and learn your craft: how to take care of your voice, how to pace your concerts, all that trial and error.

Of course, I want to sell records, and of course I want to get played on radio, but it has to be about making the record that I'm proud of.

I wanted to stop while we were still getting big hits. The only thing I miss is the actual performing.

I earned the opportunity to stand on stage with many senior artists at YG, and naturally, I gained stage experience.

My aunts and uncles were like, 'You've got such a great voice - why don't you try out for 'American Idol?'' I'd say, 'Because I'm a songwriter, not a puppet.' Even if I won and became really successful off a show like that, I'd be miserable.

We've never really been susceptible to pressure from anyone from the outside. We've been really good at negating any outside influences. We're really hard on ourselves. The filter that we put upon things qualifying to end up on a Tool record is pretty extreme, so we figure we've got that part of it under control.

I listen to so much music every day, so that's such a big part of my life. To be able to pursue that and put out my own stuff is definitely a goal. I don't want to put something out that I'm not proud of because I think it's so easy to say, 'I'm an actress/musician.'

Even the idea of people paying to hear me shouting into a microphone for an hour is alien to me - and I hope it always will be.

After I joined the Indian cricket team, MS Dhoni advised me that I need to avoid reading the newspapers and should try to stay away from social media as much as possible.

I was at a slight disadvantage in that I had never played in bands or done any performances before, and that's just as important as writing, recording, and putting records out. It's been a lot of hard work, balanced with a lot of pinch-myself moments of touring in crazy parts of the world.

In the past, I had this open-door policy where everyone was invited. And that was awesome, but you end up releasing songs that you don't really like and justifying it in your head.

I've played the Royal Albert Hall to 8,500 people, and there wasn't a nerve in my body.