I sometimes use music as way of getting back to a certain time, dredging up stuff from the past and putting it down on canvas.

To make music I rely on other people, which is good - that's the main difference in painting and music at this stage. They are separate parts of my life really, like having two jobs, one in a bar, one in a lighthouse.

Other people's songs can inspire me, though - I always have music on when I'm painting.

If you can see a world within a portrait I would be happy with that. I don't want to tell the story with a painting, though. I'm trying to get away from the story- from the beginning and the ending.

Painting can be like poetry but as somebody who creates both I feel the necessity for both so they cant be that similar. Sometimes I think it's as basic as not wanting to get dirty.

Sometimes I just want to sit and write at a clean table and not get paint all over my hands.

I don't really need to be inspired by literature though. At the end of the day it's colour and imagery moved around until it works.