SG: So your musical beginnings were friends and family-based, and then so were your first big steps out into wider acclaim—outside London, out into the world, with your schoolmate Robert (Pattinson)…

SB: It’s still all friend-based. I don’t work with anyone that isn’t a friend. My band, my booking agent, my manager… Everyone I want to work with, I want to have a relationship that is stronger than just work. As far as the connection with Rob, he’s a friend—that’s it. There’s no special story. The special story is in our friendship. That’s it. There’s nothing grand about it. I got a song on this Twilight soundtrack—that opened up a bigger audience than I was ready for, perhaps, and then it was up to me to keep the music-lovers, and expand and grow on and through and past and with that.

SG: I can’t let you go and not go back to Rob for one final question, but I don’t want to get you into any trouble…
SB: You can’t get me into trouble. I can get me into trouble.

SG: Good point. But I’ll try not to lead you into any trouble.
SB: That’s fine, because I can deflect. I’ve been doing it for years.

SG: I bet you have. You’ve been mates for a long, long time. As surreal as life must be for him, which is up way up there, you have seen that from one step removed, and you have a sense of what that means as you’re an artist on the road connecting with people as well although maybe not quite to the “Beatles running down the street in ‘Help’” thing that he’s been going through. What does that leave you thinking? From what you’ve seen from him, what impact does that have on you? Does that end up being a blessing—you get to see how that can be from a pseudo-safe distance?
SB: If I thought about it and if I dissected it in any way, that wouldn’t be a healthy thing. It just is. There’s no difference in anything I do. There’s no difference in anything he does. There’s no difference in anything any friend I have, whether it be my wife… It just doesn’t make a difference. I’m gonna keep doing what I’m gonna do. Robert Pattinson is going to keep doing what he’s gonna do. Tom Sturridge is gonna keep doing what he’s gonna do. Bobby Long is gonna keep doing what he’s gonna do. Marcus Foster is gonna keep doing what’s he’s gonna do. Angus McNeice is gonna keep doing what he’s gonna do. Anyone I know are gonna do what they’re gonna do, and that’s not changed anything.