When all these huge offers start coming in, people see dollar signs. People see fame. I just knew that it was a lie. Unless you really hit it off in radio right away - a lot of my friends didn't, and they were getting put in so many horrible positions where they were getting stuck. They weren't even allowed to release music.
I think '60s are appealing to creative people, because it seemed to be a time of endless possibilities, when the boundaries of what could be considered popular culture were being expanded almost by the week. It doesn't feel like that anymore. At times, I wish it were so. Radio is a perfect example; good God, I mean, back then the most interesting songs were also hits, and that's just not true anymore. It hasn't been true in a long time.
When I first started, in 2006, it was an exciting time. Independent, cool, weird artists were being successful, and magazines were writing about them, and people were getting played on radio that were, like, really good.
Student TV and radio are great grounding for all presenting. Just to get used to coming up with an idea, making it and getting it out there, I think that's a really good pattern and a good habit to get into.
Well, I think that the most exciting stage of any tour is getting the tour together. Because when new material works, there is no other feeling like that. It's just brilliant. And for the first half of the tour, you're still often finding the extra stuff in that material. You're exploring it every night.
My thing I liked was to challenge guys that were smaller, guys that were supposed to be quicker. Because I think self-consciously I was trying to prove to people it wasn't just my height that was getting me across in these various sports. It was some other intrinsic things that I had that made me a good athlete.
For years everyone looked toward the demise of radio when television came along. Before that, they thought talking movies might eliminate radio as well. But radio just keeps getting stronger.
When I say, 'I can't stay long, I'm in-between meals,' that plays differently on the radio than it does in person. So I have to pick material that works because the words are funny, not just because of the images.
I could turn on my radio in the morning when I was getting dressed for school and hear Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman and think this is the music. Now that music is art. Ellington is art. At that time it was just what you heard on the radio. Cole Porter was just a guy who wrote pretty songs and Billie Holliday would sing them.
The women's game has grown, but when I was playing at Arsenal, I don't think people realised how good we actually were. I think there's just a perception that we just play football, but we're not very good, and it was a challenge for us to try and prove those type of people wrong.
When I do interviews, sometimes I'll just be like "Why the hell did I say that?" because after I hang up the phone I realize there were so many things I could have said, but my brain just goes on lockdown. There's something about having conversations with people that's so much different from just singing and playing guitar. And I think a lot of people are actually performers because of that. I can't really explain why. It's like just the only chance you have in life to feel really good and outgoing.
I think I will always be performing; I don't think I can take that away. Because I really just enjoy it. I like getting up to sing; I like the challenge of learning new material and singing it in front of an audience.
People make a big deal about podcasts but it's basically an online radio show with the sound effects and sidekicks, but because you can curse it's more like satellite radio. Most of the podcasters were morning guys who were fired when Clear Channel decimated the radio landscape.
Before that, they thought talking movies might eliminate radio as well. But radio just keeps getting stronger.
If you put up a blog, people can cut out the middle man and get material to you. Which is really helpful because a lot of time there's really cool stuff out there that we just don't see. Because, y'know, the agent is acting in our best interest, but it does sometimes prevent some of the good stuff from getting through.
It's just become such a business, getting into college. I see that a lot in my friends, their parents were so on top of them about getting into an Ivy League school since they were so young, they were just drilled and drilled and drilled, to the point that they just don't know why they want to go.