Top 44 Ben Howard Quotes

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

As a singer-songwriter I definitely think I push the mould a lot.

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.

Just to get asked to a Ibiza Rocks is a big thing.

I’ve never been a fan of all the R&B and vocoder stuff you hear on the radio.

I’m not like a total recluse who lives in the woods or anything.

We spent so much time on ‘Every Kingdom,’ it was a real heart record.

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

I meet a lot of people who are awkward around me now. I was always embarrassed about that; the more attention I got, the less I wanted it and the more it would manifest in a physical way and I would be hunched over about it. I’m just starting to realise now that it’s not my problem, it’s somebody else’s problem.

I think as soon as you start believing you’re doing something superior to other people, then you start losing the plot.

For me, recording was a lot about honing my guitar skills and honing my singing.

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.

I’ve been going to Ibiza all my life really, since I was a kid.

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.

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.

I live inside my own brain, most of the time. So where I am physically doesn’t really bother me – if the physical place sparks something in my imagination, then it’s a good place.

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

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 guess I’m the sort who, if I find something comfortable, tends to push against it.

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.

The recording sessions for ‘Noonday Dream’ were so varied and over quite a period of time.

You have to write songs for yourself and not worry about what other people are going to say or think about it. But ultimately it does go out to a lot of people and it will make its way into their lives, and that’s really special.

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

I don’t know if I’m particularly shy.

I’m terrified of routine.

You realise that people do things differently to each other and, more and more, I realise that there’s no right or wrong. You can be a pop star and singing cabaret, and the entertainment of it is your flamboyance, it is your attitude.

I get really angsty if I’ve got songs building up and I haven’t gotten them recorded.

We played a lot of live shows, we just kept plugging away and playing music and people kept coming back.

We’d get residencies in the local pubs. It was just an excuse to have a free tab at the bar, and then at some point people started chucking me a few quid for it. There was no game plan to any of it.

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.

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’m one of those artists who doesn’t really believe in fame. You can be a normal person these days, you don’t need celebrity appeal.

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.

I find it funny how at British festivals there are such inflated egos. It’s rare that I even talk to anyone at a lot of them.

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.

I was never in music to make it to award shows.

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

Women and their impact, good and bad. It makes men write songs. I write about relationships, basically.

I enjoy the sea more than I enjoy surfing.

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

When you’re playing guitar, it’s the tiny little nuances that make the difference. For me, obviously, tunings is a huge one.

There’s force-feeding people synthesised music, then there’s a skill in technically being able to play an instrument, even if that is some electronic pad.

The music you play, it’s never intended for other people, so it’s quite amazing dealing with stuff now, because obviously any tracks I write, a lot of folks are going to hear. It definitely plays on my mind quite a lot.

I’m not very good at speeches.