Eliot Sumner

Professions :

I'm very shy and awkward; I can't have a normal conversation, and then people think I'm being a bit rude, but really I'm not.

think shy conversation people

In 2009, I fractured my skull in a freak accident at an L.A. restaurant. I suffered a seizure and was rushed into hospital. I was so out of it that I refused to let them scan my brain. My dad rushed to my bedside and talked me into having the CAT scan - he told me that I might die if I didn't go through with it.

die me dad brain

It's always best to challenge yourself and go to a place out of your comfort zone.

challenge yourself place best

I write most of my stuff when I'm on a train or a plane, any mode of transport. I like trains because you hear this motoric rhythm and the scenery is great. You go into your own little world. You don't have to be anywhere else.

great you scenery world

I try to read, but my attention span is so bad, and ever since Netflix was invented, that's all I do in my spare time, which is really bad, but it's like a chore to read for me.

bad me time attention

I wear a lot of black. Like my heart.

wear like black heart

With social networks these days, everyone needs to know everything all the time. But the problem is, people are so used to short snippets of information that no one has any attention span anymore. I don't, anyway.

short problem time people

I don't look into myself too much. I don't think I'm shy so much as a better listener than I am a speaker. I just really don't wish for attention.

i-am myself look think

I'm very much a creature of habit. I don't like to try to new things.

new try new-things habit

I'm an extremist. I don't do things in halves. I don't moderate anything. That can be with work or with good things as well. But often, I take it a bit too far.

things good good-things work

I sometimes suffer from insomnia, and one of the first times it ever happened, I was like, 'I don't know what to do with myself,' so I started writing a song, and by morning, it was finished. It was about how I couldn't sleep... I was 14.

myself sleep song morning

My French is terrible, and my Spanish is even worse. I find Spanish really difficult. They speak so quickly, whereas in German, it's very clear what they're saying. It's easier to repeat.

find saying difficult speak

I like to move around. It suits me. I grew up in Wiltshire on a farm, and that's the only place I call home.

place me suits home

I think I have a lot of energy, and most of it is quite aggressive energy. But in a positive way, I think. It's like a positive aggression.

think energy positive way

I started listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young when I was 8 or 9 years old - I had siblings that gave me good music instead of the crap that was on the radio in the '90s.

good me music listening

I only wear black. I think it suits me.

think me suits black

It's not a nice thing to have a song written about you.

about you nice song

I think, forever, I was trying to figure out maybe... what I am. But I don't think anyone should feel pressured to have any kind of label or tag on them. We should treat everybody the same... Me, I don't like to be put down to a specific thing. We're all human beings.

treat i-am feel me

I was somewhat of a mute at school, so people were quite scared!

quite scared people school

People always have to have a reference - I think I'll always be in the shadow of my parents.

parents think shadow people

Adam Jones

Izzy Stradlin

Bon Scott

Brad Delp

Brad Delson

Brian Eno