When we wander into a nondescript organic eatery in New York's east village, Greg Holden is savoring a rare moment of solitude. The UK native is currently in the city he's called home for the past seven years, and better yet he's somewhere where he has plenty of other options as a vegetarian. We both order the Earth Bowl Salad special, which features kale, arugula, quinoa, roasted zucchini and about a dozen other healthy ingredients while inoffensive world music plays softly in the background. It turns out to the be the perfect soundtrack for the story of Holden's transcontinental life change, how he approaches the creative process and what it's like winning over metal fans with his heartfelt brand of folk rock.  

How is the food different here than it is in the UK?

It's so different. One thing I notice when I go back is that the food [in England] is so potato-heavy and full of carbs. It's very heavy and filling, and I'm definitely more into light food. Especially now that I’m vegetarian, going to England is a challenge because everything is fried fish or meat pies. I think the difference with New York is that you have a lot more options. You have cuisine from all around the world, and if you're in every other American city it's the same thing, you know? In England unless you're in London you either have typical English food, Chinese or Indian food. Good thing the Indian food in England is the best outside of India.  

How long have you been vegetarian?  

A few years. When I went to India I didn't eat meat for eight weeks and I lost weight and felt amazing, and then I came back and gained weight and felt terrible so it was an easy decision to go back. I feel happier. Some people aren't like that, but I just feel better when I'm not eating animals. 

How did you end up moving to the US?  

Everyone I grew up admiring as singer-songwriters ended up having a life in New York and would sing about it or talk about it at some point, so I had this romantic vision of living here. I had a day job in London I wasn't happy with, and I was trying to do music but the only real way I could take the plunge was to really commit and move somewhere else. Scare the crap out of myself. [Laughs] It seemed like the right time to go, so I quit my job, sold all my stuff and moved to New York seven years ago. I just threw myself in the deep end and keep trying to survive.

Your song "Boys In The Street" was included on a compilation by the LGBT organization Everyone is Gay. (Editor's note: Myself and my sister were also featured on a subsequent compilation.) Is it important for you to try to use your music in a positive way?

I've always wanted to spread a positive message, but I feel like I've only now just figured out how to do it in a way that wasn't sounding pissed off. The way that came about is I have these friends that run this organization called Everyone Is Gay and they asked me to submit a song, so I ended up writing a song for them right before I made my album called Boys In The Street. When I showed it to the producer, I was making my record Chase The Sun with, he was like, "You have to put this song on the album," so that's sort of how it came about. That song wouldn't have existed otherwise. I always work better when there's a story inspiring a song. I had one that pretty successful called "The Lost Boy" that was inspired by a Sudanese refugee that Dave Eggers wrote about in a book called What Is The What. I'm drawn to telling stories about people so I find it a lot easier to focus when I have a character to write about. I'm sick of writing about myself.

What artists inspire you?

I sound like a cliché, but I grew up listening to Bob Dylan—that was a guy I wanted to be when I started playing guitar. But a lot of people may not believe that I was also into a lot of hardcore metal bands, and for me the anger and emotion in those songs still translates to why I still write. I'm not screaming my head off anymore, but I like the anger and aggression and have some songs that embody that feeling lyrically. But I’m also a huge Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen fan, and every once and a while there are bands that come along now that inspire me like, say, Dawes.

It seems like that fits with the fact that you tour with so many different types of bands. Do you enjoy trying to win people over?

Yeah, I went on tour in Germany with a metal band that were doing an acoustic show, and when I got booked on the tour I was like, "This sounds ridiculous." But it was the most successful support tour I've ever had in terms of merch sales and the amount of people who were sitting there quietly watching. It was amazing. So I don't know, I like the challenge of winning people over, but I am excited and eager to start headlining now and finally be the person that people are going there to watch. It can be very exhausting always trying to win people over. 

Are there any songs from those early days that you still play live?

There's a song that I wrote years and years ago that's called "The American Dream" that was on my first record and I still have it on my set list because I really enjoy playing it. It's a true story about how I was on the subway once, and I saw this homeless couple in this weird moment where the guy was trying to convince his girlfriend or wife that everything was going to be okay while she was crying. I had only been in New York for a year or two at this point, and it was this alarming scene. He had stolen a bunch of phones from people and he was saying he was going to sell them and they were going to be able to sleep in a shelter tonight—and I was like, "This really New York?" it just made me think about the fact that you hear all the time that America is the greatest nation on Earth and everyone is chasing the American dream, but this was the reality for those two people. That's probably one of the songs I'm most proud of for that reason.