When I was a teenager, I got into four track recorders, drum machines, and synthesizers, and I started producing instrumental music.

A real foolproof way to do it is play your stuff by hook or by crook and build up a grass roots following

Simon Hale, the British arranger, does all string and wood arrangements on my records

Emerson, Lake & Palmer or King Crimson or Gentle Giant - the worst prog rock references I can come up with. Though I totally loved those groups as a kid.

I also wanted to make a record that was about other things than romance, yeah, after two years on the road singing all the songs from the first album, I got kind of tired of that.

I'd have these weird experiences where I'd just be walking down the street with this chord progression in my head, this happened more than a few times, and I'd walk home and find a fax in my machine and it would match the music in my head

Happy music doesn't tend to move me much