Johnny Flynn Quotes
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I fell in love with the legend of Paul Robeson as a kid. My dad would tell me all these amazing stories about his life and, bizarrely, ended up singing to Robeson on his deathbed.
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I first came across Langhorne Slim when I saw him play live, and he's an incredibly infectious performer. The way he works the crowd is mind-blowing. You can listen to his music without really listening to his lyrics, but it pays off if you do.
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I played trumpet for Noah and the Whale a couple of times.
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It's great to be able to write songs and draw on life, to write truthfully, and to be able to do that, it's good to be exploring other stuff as well.
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Certain films should only be watched at 40,000 feet. Like, certain comedies and certain, uh, emotionally charged movies.
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The pop industry is so well-practised at channelling young people's creative energy that I think it gets abused.
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The Band mean a lot to me in terms of what I aspire to achieve with my group, as the music they made went against the fashion of the time.
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I try and stay in my right brain as much as I can, but my left takes over.
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I take them both seriously - I don't particularly want to be an 'actor-musician.' I want to play the great challenging parts, to be right for the part, rather than just, 'Oh, he can play the fiddle.'
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When I was young, I was being pushed, against my will, towards becoming a classical musician. I had music scholarships; I had to play the violin and do orchestra practice and that sort of stuff. That meant I didn't get to do any school plays. I desperately wanted to do that.
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Music always gets bumped until I have some time to get around to it.
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I can't remember a 'best gig,' and my brain doesn't work in absolute terms like that.
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The world that I know and the world that I come from is from the arts, and my wife's an artist, and I've been a musician since I left college, and there's tons of musicians I'd love to play.
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The thing I find really special in performance is that there is this slightly mystical thing that takes over when you're responding to a crowd and engaging in people's imaginations collectively in a room. I've always thought that one of the most incredible things about being alive is going to see some kind of performance like that.
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Not listening is the reason for so many misunderstandings and conflicts.
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My father was an actor. Both of my older brothers are actors. My younger sister is an actress. For me, that's my job; that's my craft. But then all through school and through drama school, I was gigging and running nights and playing in bands, and I just didn't want to let that go.
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I'm a huge David Hockney fan.
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If you're in a garage band, it's about being better than the band in the next-door garage. But in the folk tradition, it's more a vibe of sharing.
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I feel really lucky that I somehow have blagged my way into loads of different experiences. I find making a film fascinating, I find making a play amazing, and working with my band and scoring things... it's all really cool. I'm just a glutton for experience, really.
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Taking someone else's language and fitting it into your own speech - you learn a lot about other people's brains, doing that.
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My only incentive is to write music that changes me, where the process of making it is a discovery and is true in some way, at that moment.
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I'm a big Bob Dylan fan. I'm also a blues geek.
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When I first moved to London, there was talk of a folk revival, with annoying names like nu-folk that made me feel slightly ill.
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The reason I stopped music for a while and concentrated on theatre was that it was more conducive to parenting; having the days free was quite handy. I love them both. I hope I don't have to compromise one for the other.