I didn't start writing because I needed to get things off my chest. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

I used to hate calling myself a singer-songwriter because I picture what I saw so much at open mic nights: that breed of melancholic folk, kind of shut your eyes, strum your guitar and everything is said for you, one cliché after another, I'll tell you what really starts to wind me up: when every in every verse rhymes perfectly, and you start to think that wasn't the best word that you could have used, it was just the one that fit.

It's a blessing having the Internet 'cause you Google those names and it points you to Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Lead Belly, Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson...you realize it's all connected.

I'm really quite a happy guy. I needed some rhythm and energy. And when I started writing for myself and putting in the bluesy licks, that's when it became exciting, and thats when people started getting interested.