A good video can make all the difference

I'm the nice guy who sits there signing everything that's put in front of me.

On the first few albums the songs would grow into strange shapes.

I had this big thing about guitar harmonies. I wanted to be the first to put proper three-part harmonies onto a record. That was an achievement.

I'm into paradoxes. I wanted to make an album about them, but the group told me I was a pretentious fart. They were right.

I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end's off a knitting needle and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.

My mum says I wanted to be a surgeon, but I don't remember that. I think from the time I knew what was happening, I wanted to be a guitar player.