In his 20 years on this earth, baby-faced acoustic troubadour George Ezra has finished in the Top 5 of the BBC Sound of 2014 poll, recorded a debut album (the forthcoming Wanted On Voyage) and been selected to perform at Burberry catwalk shows in London and Shanghai (he's not exactly bad-looking, you see). The other week he made his UK TV debut singing his current single Budapest on Later...With Jools Holland, and later this month he’ll undertake some sort of train-based promotional enterprise involving him and his fans travelling around Europe singing songs.
Obviously this is all great, but what does the man whose music is inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan think about emojis? Let's find out shall we?
******The Debrief: What's your favourite emoji?
GE: The little Spanish woman dancing. I like her. And you can use her in most situations really – she’s up for a laugh. I’ve grown quite fond of this little blue and yellow fish as well.
****DB: Do you ever use the painting nails one?
GE have done. But if I was going for a sassy emoji I’d go for the one where the woman’s pushing up her hair. I just wish there was a website where you could pay to get an emoji created for you.
****DB: You’ve been described as having a ‘voice beyond your years’. What does that mean exactly?
GE
****DB: Do you feel like an old soul?
GE
****DB: Do you listen to any music made post 1960? It’s not just Woodie Guthrie, you know…
GE
****DB: What else are you listening to?
GE: When I was, like, 14 and getting into music, a load of bands came out and I was the perfect age for that. Bands like Arctic Monkeys, Maccabees, Vampire Weekend, etc. I was into all of that. I went through a little hip-hop stage, which I think is necessary.
****DB: Your Wikipedia page says one of your musical influences is Bob Monkhouse, which is obviously amazing…
GE: I don’t know who that is.
****DB: You've been hacked!
GE: Who is Bob Monkhouse?
****DB: He’s a TV legend who died in 2003.
GE
****DB: Who’s your favourite member One Direction?
GE: Zayn. I reckon me and him would get on.
****DB: Why’s that?
GE: I just think he’s cool. He seems like the most personable.
****DB: Who do you think will go solo first?
GE: I think it would only work with Harry. But apparently Niall’s the loose cannon.
****DB: And he does a lot of the songwriting now…
GE: Who? Niall? Well, I mean I watched their live DVD and he claims to play the guitar, but he wasn’t playing guitar during those performances.
****DB: You performed at some Burberry catwalk shows recently. How did that come about?
GE: They’re just great at involving new artists. They do their live sessions thing and they involve the music in their catwalk shows. I’d not been to a catwalk show before and I’ve been to few of theirs now and I learnt a few things; firstly, the shows are very short. I always assumed that the catwalk show was about two hours long but it’s ten minutes if that, which is good for me. Also, it’s a lot more than just attractive people wearing attractive clothes. It’s an event.
****DB: They obviously picked you because you’re a good-looking person, though.
GE: No. It’s because I sing.
****DB: But there are some ugly people that sing that don't get to perform for Burberry.
GE: Imagine if I was like, ‘Yeah, but there are some ugly ones that do it, too, you should see them.’
****DB: There aren’t, though. Jake Bugg’s done it as well, and he’s a good-looking chap.
GE: He’s not my type, really.
****DB: Do you get to keep the clothes?
GE: Yeah. If you’re supposed to take them back at the end, then I’ve done a pretty good job of escaping. The unfortunate thing is that for the first time in my life I’ve got nice clothes, but for the first time in my life as well I live out of a suitcase in a van.
****DB: Did you get to meet Cara Delevingne?
GE: Yeah, and she’s lovely. I imagine that part of why she’s had so much success if because she’s a really nice person. I think there’s quite a bit of pouting going on in modelling – literally and metaphorically – and she didn’t have any of that going on.
****DB: Did you write a song called Budapest just so you could break the Hungarian market?
GE: No. I don’t think their music market’s great. If I were to do that I’d probably have picked Germany.
****DB: But it’s been big in Germany as well, hasn’t it?
GE: Yeah and across Europe. I’ve just got back from Germany yesterday and I did a gig in Brussels two nights ago and people were singing along to quite a few of the songs. It really drills home that you can do what you want, but if something’s going to work it will just work.
****DB: Do you worry about chart placings and all that stuff?
GE: No. Whatever this is has all come around very quickly and I’m aware that it will last as long as it’s going to last. It’s really fun.
****DB: What’s in your fridge?
GE: I have three beds across England, so let me think. I have my single bed at my dad’s. I still have Woody and Buzz [from Toy Story] on my windowsill; that’s a real time warp that room. So, in that house, my dad likes to make tzatziki, so there will be a lot of that. He has chickens, so there will be eggs in there. He usually has Tesco Value Mayonnaise, three random beers left over from my brother’s parties. Oh, and red cheese that we’re not allowed to eat because that’s my dad’s pack lunch cheese.
****DB: You’re going on something called the Ezra Express where you take a train across five European countries with some fans. Is it like your version of the Rihanna plane?
GE: No, because apparently she barely showed her face during that, whereas I’m going to be party boy.
****DB: Are your fans pretty mad? Do you think you’ll be OK stuck on a train with them?
GE: Yeah, of course I’m a bit worried. I think it’s a ridiculous idea and a recipe for disaster, but I like that. I’m looking forward to getting them to agree to let me take over their Twitter accounts. I’m going to make sure I do that. It goes Bristol to London, Brussels, Paris, Munich and then over to Budapest. But Bristol, London and Paris all in one day and then a gig that night. So it all lasts four days in total.
****DB: What’s the weirdest tweet a fan has sent you?
GE: What really winds me up, actually, is that I released the tracklisting for the album and so many people were asking why songs I’d already released weren’t on the album, and I was thinking, ‘It’s already on iTunes. You’ve obviously already got it, so why does it matter?’ I do block some people, too. They do this thing where they tweet saying, ‘Follow me x1,’ then ‘x2’ and they go up to 30, but if they get that far then that’s it, blocked.
****DB: Do people still send fan mail?
GE: Yeah, I get presents at gigs and stuff, and I really like that. Plus, they pay attention to what I say I like on Twitter, so I get loads of Kinder Bueno and Chupa Chups.
DB: They don’t throw them at you, do they?
GE: No. But once I was playing the second song of the set and the whole audience started laughing at me and it’s a really unsettling experience when that happens, but basically this girl had got onstage without me realising and was just smelling me. I carried on and was Mr Professional. I remember her being quite pretty as well actually.
Budapest is out on 15 June.
Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelCragg
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.