I've had a wordless phase, and that's still not entirely over: what I sing is not always literally meant that way, and you can hear that in the way it is sung.

The blackness of darkness, forever.

My voice adapts itself to the music. I can do a lot more than you hear in Portishead.

I think that after a year of Portishead I've become a little more sober.

There's not only emotion in the way you sing but also in what you sing. That way I can compensate it.

You feel the music needs something but you don't know what. So you start searching, fitting, measuring, trying. Every time you try another angle. And sometimes that's frustrating, especially if you don't come up with something for three days.

I try to imagine how we would live if we didn't know we were going to die. Would we live our lives differently? Less careful, maybe? Less scared? These are beautiful things to think about and build a song around.