“I accept the fact that angels are great heavenly beings, and I think some people give me the feeling that I’m with an angel.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I didn’t blend well with my classmates or my teachers.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“In this life, I’ve learned to be patient. And I’m still learning… Even now, I wish things would go quicker.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I believe when the music is being sung or being played, at the end of it, there’s some sort of grace and understanding. And that’s all I want for humanity. I just want us to understand each other. That’s the point of my music.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I realised that we’re all equal – it’s all about helping each other.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“The meaning of love is obviously huge – but for me, it means be nice to people, and people will be nice to you back. Love is a selfless place to be. There is no safer place to be than under the canopy of love.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Life is life. You have to learn how to forgive people and how to gain forgiveness for yourself.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“It stayed with me – the Bible has stayed with me. I’ve grown out of it because, obviously, you live life for yourself and have your choice to believe what you want to believe in, but I know that the Bible can be used to appreciate life.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Music is the reason I started talking to people. When I started singing in bars and trains, I began to learn the behaviour of people. Music was the bait that helped me get something from them and give myself to them.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“People want a beautiful story. Hopefully my life story is still beautiful, but that metro stuff doesn’t make it much more pitiful.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“It’s my only freedom, music, and I’m not going to give it up to anyone else.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Arizona – I’ve only spent a few days there, but it’s inspired me the most. It’s so peaceful.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I always try to be as discreet as possible, so I wear black.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Where you’re from shapes you, but you can actually do whatever you want.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’ve learned my lessons, but I’m also still learning them.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Sometimes it feels like my story overshadows my music.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’ve learned in the little bit of my life so far that you can’t fool people. And so I only tell people what I think about: my ambitions, my dreams, what inspires me.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I know, deep down, that what makes my music what it is are my words. It always starts from me wanting to say something. Once I’ve run out of things to say, I’ll be done.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“The thing is: I was quite slow when I was younger. I might have been smart – I don’t know – but I was slow talking to people. And as you can see, I don’t talk very loud.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“The minute I stop singing, I’m back to being shy. I’m soft-spoken because I never really talked to people. I didn’t learn to do it.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I don’t think I’m a singer, I think I’m an expressionist. But it takes time to put it in people’s minds that this guy is not singing, ‘Baby, I want to have you.’ This guy is actually thinking about what he’s saying. This guy has something to say.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“We always blame other people when things go wrong. For example, family to friends, you think they’ll stay by your side, and you realise they never do. But that’s life.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’m from a middle class family, but my father squandered all the money, so I didn’t really run around with rich people.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“If I’m being forced to do something I don’t want to do, my real self comes out. But whether or not I’m aware of it, no matter what happens, I’m always going to have a fake self, and I’m not going to judge my fake self.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I was lucky to have read a lot of poetry when I was younger; it helped me to remember a way to write.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Personally, I wouldn’t mind going on stage naked, totally naked.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’m actually doing what I like doing, which is mixing opera music and classical music with soul and folk. And I was writing and talking about what I’ve actually experienced, and I don’t think that’s very common.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I would describe myself as outspoken. Not political. Outspoken about what I want to say. There are things that need to be said… and I think it’s my obligation to say them.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I appreciate my city very much. When I go to America and Europe, and I tell everyone I’m from London, I’m proud.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Studying music involves a lot of mathematics and a lot of exercises of memory. Or you’ve got to be able to be like somebody, to play like somebody, to play Mozart’s music the way he played it and how he intended it. You’ve got to make it perfect, and that’s not what I want to do. Although it is beautiful.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“My parents always said that I would be a lawyer or pilot or doctor – and I always just thought that’s what I would do.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“When I first started singing in Paris, I sounded horrible: I was just singing to get some money to eat. And I wasn’t singing my own songs: it was Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix. Eventually, when I wrote my own music, my style just came out of my own place.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Because I didn’t think anyone would actually listen to my music, I thought I could say whatever I wanted.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I personally wouldn’t want my second album to sound like my first; it might sound very rocky or hard rock – and that wouldn’t be melancholy. So if people think my music is melancholic, then so be it. It’s meant to be uplifting, and I’m just basically saying what needs to be said.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“The greatest in heroes in life are the anonymous. That’s what I believe. Your neighbours are heroes. People who, when you walk down the street, you see them feeding their little baby – these people are heroes because they are living under difficult situations, but they’re still trying to save a life.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I always see my music for its rewards rather than its awards. But I always thought if there was one award I’d want to win, it would be the Mercury.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Most people think a song is a song – three minutes, and you’re done. I don’t think this way. Songs are my wings. They’re what I use to fly. It’s very important for me to put everything in the right place.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Honestly, I still don’t know a lot of artists, and I want to keep it that way for a while. I think that’s why I might be quite original.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I found it quite pleasing to be alone from a very young age. The piano became my source of release.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“It’s amazing how people believe you if you use long words.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“People say my world is dark. No, there’s a lot of lightness in my world. But I know very well that I’m not normal when I’m performing.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Where I’m staying, near Lafayette Street, Bowery, and Houston, you get different people with different spirits, and that’s what I like.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I know that New York is big – there are huge buildings – but, in fact, it’s quite small and contained… I like it when cities are melancholic. When it started snowing, for example, I felt very lonely. I felt very comfortable and very relaxed. When that happens, I write. So I’ve been writing, not a lot, but I’m inspired every day.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Poetry itself is music. I’m just lucky that I can convert it into music. William Blake is my favorite poet of all time, and he said that he wasn’t quite familiar with the sounds of music. If so, he would have been a musician. All of his poems are all like songs, and that’s how I always try to start my thoughts.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“At home and in church – which I didn’t go to a lot, I was very rebellious, but my family was strict Christians – they would ask us, ‘What’s the shortest verse in the Bible?’ and I was the one who always said ‘John 11:35’ straightaway. It stayed with me: the Bible has stayed with me.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Why are there not cabs in Edmonton? Why are there cabs in central London but not here? And if they’re going to be here, they should be cheaper. And travelcards, they’re expensive.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“If you live in central London, that’s probably fine for you, but in places like Edmonton, where you’re almost out of sight of London, you’ve got to pay more and more to get into central London. How does that work?”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I was on the train; I did play, but I also played in bars, in the streets, at birthday parties for people who discovered me on the train.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I wanted to find people who were like me, and I did, in the people I was reading.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Now I’m standing in front of a thousand people. They’re all looking at me, but they’re sitting down. They’re surrendered, so I have to keep on proving myself to them and giving them all my passion.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I personally don’t know what nerves are. I don’t get scared when I’m going to play music. But I think something, maybe my fears, are buried into my songs. Because I’m singing them.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“When I was a kid, I remember seeing Michael Jackson. I thought he was an alien. You don’t grow up to be like Michael Jackson. I’m not saying I’m Michael Jackson, but Mercury Prizes are for aliens, basically. So I was very chuffed that I got nominated, and then I won.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“There are things that need to be said… and I think it’s my obligation to say them.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I clearly remember my father cutting our jumpers and our sports clothes with scissors – because he didn’t want us to wear jogging bottoms and hoodies. He thought that would somehow set the police on us.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“If you have parents who can’t show you love, a kid can grow up to look arrogant. Because they need to create a fake self. Or they think they’re more powerful than they really are.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“The fact is, it wasn’t enjoyable being in secondary school. I was a weird kid.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“With this sort of career, you need determination. You’ve got to sacrifice a lot of things: family, friends – not that I had any – but you sacrifice everything.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I dedicate all my time to music. And I’m glad that it’s paying off in some ways.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“My heroes: Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Nina Simone.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“When I was very young, my brother and I, we used to go into charity shops to buy suits. The thing about clothes is that people judge you by what you wear, unfortunately. So when we wore suits, people gave us respect – we were very young, and it made them think we were older.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“When I lived in Paris, I would shop at antique shops and buy these huge coats because I was very cold. And then I started performing in them because I felt safe. I never stopped doing that.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I like black a lot because I can’t really see colors – so I wear a lot of dark-colored clothes. You’ve got to be aware of what you’re wearing because you might become that.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“People don’t always realize that as a performer, you’ve got to relive those moments. Memories crash through your brains, and you’ve got to think about your past and the reason why you wrote the song. All that emotion comes back.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“My music isn’t mainstream music.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Not all families stay together.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I got into a lot of trouble. Maybe that’s why my parents didn’t really like me and I didn’t blend in with my family. I was always the naughty one.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“If I weren’t musical, then I would have just published a book, you know? But I’m lucky enough to play piano, and so I use piano to convert my poems.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’m from London, and you hardly see stars because of the pollution of light. But in Arizona, there’s nothing, so I can see the stars.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I just wanted to eat, to survive. I started singing a cappella in bars. I saved up money to get my first guitar and started writing songs.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Fame is like icin’ on the cake.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’m literally nowhere yet… When things started going well, this French designer called Ami gave me some shoes and clothes to wear. But when I sat down to play the piano, the very new shoes kept slipping off the pedal. So I took them off, threw them away, and have never worn shoes while playing the piano from then on.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I never thought I’d say this, but to any child listening, the world is your oyster.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I adopted this feeling that the stage is my home, so just keep my coat on and not wear anything else.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“In Paris, I was really singing for the sake of living. But eventually people said, ‘Keep going; you’ve got a great voice,’ and I started having confidence in my voice all of a sudden. That’s when I started creating my own music.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I just want us to understand each other. That’s the point of my music.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I grew up as a man because I was by myself.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Paris is very dear to me, and I’ll never forget Paris.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I do music to tell people my thoughts and opinions about life, emotions, politics, everything.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I don’t have a flat anywhere. I’m registered in the U.K. for tax purposes, I suppose, and my mail goes to my parents.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I started writing music in a French way: more focused on lyrics than melody.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“I’m a very honest person, and I’m quite emotional for a man. If I want to say something, I’ll say it.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“When I think about Edmonton, Silver Street and Pymmes Park, the old people whose faces are so unhappy, it pushes me to be better. I want to be better to help places like this.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“If I win the Mercury Prize, I’ll be very honoured. If I don’t win it, I won’t have lost it. Someone else will have won it. And that will also be good.”
― Benjamin Clementine
“Music isn’t a competition.”
― Benjamin Clementine
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