George Ezra Talks Bob Dylan, "Budapest," Touring the States & Learning to Sing

English singer-songwriter George Ezra is coming for you, acoustic guitar in hand! 

Unlike many artists around his age, this cool crooner fell in love with old Americana as a teen instead of Top 40 radio pop. "My dad had a lot of male singer-songwriters in his CD collection and records, and out of curiosity I started to listen to those records," the singer told Fuse. "Then it was, again, curiosity. I wanted to listen to what they’d been listening to and that’s where I found it. I think it’s just the stories and the simplicities of what it is on the surface and then you scratch and it’s just full of characters and emotion. I love them." 

And the first artist in this record collection he fell for? Dylan. "The first musician that I ever kind of fell in love with was Bob Dylan. That was the first time music was more than just on in the background or anything like that. I used to waste my time trying to figure out why he’s as good as he is. I just put it down to the fact that I don’t know. He’s a very clever man, I guess."

Like Dylan, singing didn't come naturally for Ezra. "I could never really sing when I was younger. My brother and sister could. They were good. I tried. I just couldn’t sing in tune, which is an issue. When I was sixteen I read the back of a Leadbelly album and it said that Leadbelly’s voice was so big that you had to turn your record player down compared to other records. I liked the idea of that and I tried to sing with a big voice and I could. I didn’t ask any questions, I just carried on doing it. I think I’ve improved, though. It used to be just shouty, and I guess there’s a bit more technique to it now."