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" In my mind, there's usually a fairly definitive kind of narrative when I write. But I don't want to enforce that on other people. I think that's why I like using metaphor so much. "

Johnny Flynn

Think

Why

Kind

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" The moment you have children, it's like your heart gets out of your body, puts on clothes, and walks away. "

" I'm married to the girl that I first went out with when I was 16. We were on and off for years; now we're married with a kid, so I don't have that many exes. "

" Bob Dylan has and Einstein had their own way of perceiving the universe and translating it for us. "

" I try and stay in my right brain as much as I can, but my left takes over. "

" 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

" 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. "

" I'm often the one in my gang of friends who's worried about how we're going to get from A to B. I'm the one running around saying, 'Is somebody going to do something about it?' Everyone else is bit more chilled. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm not a funny person. "

" Certain films should only be watched at 40,000 feet. Like, certain comedies and certain, uh, emotionally charged movies. "

" I have a classical music background. I studied violin and trumpet. "

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

" If you're trying to do something wholly new, it's hard to fully trust it. But if you use forms that have come before, it lends your music weight and authority. It's also a way to acknowledge that it's not just you who's feeling these things. The emotions are coming through you from a whole history. "

" In my early twenties, the whole experience of going on tour was like losing myself in this slightly wild environment. "

" I'm not really interested in myself in my writing. I can't see myself in the songs, even though I know different parts of me are there. "

Johnny Flynn

Writing

Songs

" 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. "

" 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. "

" We all have these shades in our nature: it's a spectrum within all of us. "

" 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

" 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. "

" Music always gets bumped until I have some time to get around to it. "

" 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. "

" We had no money, my dad was out of work a lot, and we never owned a house. It was very hand-to-mouth. "

" I think the two are kind of synonymous for me; songwriting is like my form of diary making. It's how I process the world. Without doing that, I feel kind of lost. The characters that I play often come out in the songs and the challenges that they face, albeit in an abstract way. "

" I'm not a fan of taking too long in the studio. I always do one vocal take and jump out of the control room, and people push me back in... It's a real turn-off to hear things that are too polished. I feel like I've almost fought for the right to be that kind of musician - we used to be on a major label, and now we're on an indie. "

Johnny Flynn

Control

Long

" 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

" Loads of verses don't make it into the finished song. "

" I think Bob Odenkirk is phenomenal. "