"My story starts in the back of beyond, growing up on a goose farm deepest darkest Wales.
I've been obsessed with music for as long as I can remember, probably down to my uncle and father’s singalong sessions around campfires. One of my earliest memories is being sat in a field mesmerised by these two bearded men playing their guitars and singing Blowin’ in the Wind. The record collection in my house ranged from Hendrix to Stan Getz to Vivaldi so I have always had a wide range of inspirational music around me.
I knew I wanted to be a musician but didn't know anyone in the industry. My mum is quite a ballsy hardworking woman and she was keen that I had fallback plan in case I couldn't make it as musician, so I headed to London where I was offered a place at Central St Martins to study fashion design. While I was there I got a placement then a job designing for the catwalk shows at Balenciaga in Paris: an intense experience filled with fascinating and flamboyant characters, who have popped up a lot in my songwriting.
But it ate away at me that I wasn't pursuing my dream, so I quit and headed to a grotty old caravan in my brother’s garden (in which I'm pictured for the ‘Lost & Found’ artwork). There I knuckled down, determined to give music a stab and write my way out of the grotty caravan by making demos on Garageband.
My chance came when Joe Goddard, one of my heroes, reworked an early demo of mine to create ‘Endless Love’. After this I was offered two record deals, signing to Columbia in the US and Warner Brothers in the UK and beginning work on my debut album. An unbelievable rollercoaster ride so far, that I hope will never end."
