Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I had to learn how to work in a studio at first because it's a totally different creative environment to the 'bedroom recordings' I'd done before, where I could translate my own ideas without having to explain them to anyone. "

Johnny Flynn

Environment

Done

Work

Related Quotes:

" I've always identified as an actor. That's what I set out to do. "

" You might as well acknowledge what came before, because you can never do something wholly new. It's not unoriginal to make your references clear. "

" I had a series of jobs in the small fishing village in West Wales where my family lived when I was a teenager. I worked as a fisherman in the day, and then the skipper and his wife ran a small restaurant - she'd cook the fish he caught. "

" I don't really write songs. They're just there anyway, chiseling away at the atmosphere, and suddenly they're like, 'Oh, thanks for coming. Thanks for finding me. We'll share each other now.' "

Johnny Flynn

Write

Now

" Folk music - and what people are now perceiving as being folk music - is music that's quite close to the ground. The songs sound quite old, even if they're new. They sound like they've been sung by different people for years. "

" I'm a big Bob Dylan fan. I'm also a blues geek. "

" I did a lot of theater as a young actor in my early twenties, and my first few records really came from writing songs through the rehearsal processes. "

" I can't remember a 'best gig,' and my brain doesn't work in absolute terms like that. "

Johnny Flynn

Best

Brain

" 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. "

" I'm not a funny person. "

" I always love going to New York. "

" 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. "

" I've never done anything like 'Brotherhood' before. It was a great challenge to take up a part in a live audience sitcom - it was amazing. "

" There's something amazing about 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Office' only being two series. I think, when you really nail it, you don't need to do more than two or three. "

" I played trumpet for Noah and the Whale a couple of times. "

" My dad was an actor, and he always said that work was work; you can't turn your nose up at it. We didn't have much money when I was growing up, and he had this real work ethic, which I inherited. "

" I imagine that, for most people, acting isn't something they think is a viable option, whereas for me, it was the most viable option. No adults around me knew how to do anything else. "

Johnny Flynn

Think

Most

" I just said, casually, 'You know, I passed up on auditioning for Einstein.' And my friend was like, 'You idiot, you have to do it!' She made me do it. I sent the tapes off assuming that somebody would say, 'Ha ha, very funny.' "

Johnny Flynn

Funny

Know

" I like getting older. I always looked younger than I was, and I found that people wouldn't give me the room to speak. The older I get, it's like, 'Oh, I'm still talking, and they're still listening.' "

" 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. "

Johnny Flynn

Talk

Names

" 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. "

" I think the truest things come from silence, but everything's always so clogged up with noise. If everything falls away, and you can truly listen to someone, giving them yourself and generosity, you can truly lose yourself in what they're saying. Like, not impose your ideas on what they're saying, but really tune into them. "

" 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. "

" I grew up playing classical violin and a lot of Bach and Mozart and the things that Einstein loved. "

Johnny Flynn

Playing

Things

" I'm not that politically educated. "

Johnny Flynn

Educated

Politically

" I like the idea of letting the music do its own work and the stories being more expressionful - if that's a word - in people's imagination. I've just got a thing about people and songs telling you how you should feel. "

" As a jobbing actor or musician, you have to take any work you can get. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

Johnny Flynn

Sister

Father

" It's great being an actor and being part of a play or a film where there's usually quite a big group of people who are collaborating, and your job is really to fit in and share that energy. With music, because I write the songs, it's a broader, more abstract process. "