I was brought up west southwest coast of Scotland and my mother and father had a music shop, and so I was surrounded by pianos and drums and guitars, and music, of course.

I tend to write, either myself, or I sometimes write with a co-writer, my friend that lives up the road. It's usually a relatively solitary thing, but I do like coming up with ideas.

Sometimes there's a general arc that you want to try and get better the longer you do something.

It's frustrating to do albums that you think are worth listening to, but it's just so difficult to cut through.

I like to let the songs speak so that they can go through some kind of rebirth as you play them.

I'd love to have a hit record. I don't believe anyone that says they wouldn't like that.

I suppose ever since I was about 14, I remember listening to "Sgt. Pepper's," and I remember thinking, "how do you possibly write songs like that?" I remember starting to try and write songs around that age, but just sitting around with an acoustic guitar, and try to come up with ideas for songs, and that's just what I've done ever since. I just never really stopped doing that, I suppose.