Over in the UK, the music press can be brutal. They can say wonderful things about you one week, and the next week, you're in the can.

I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person.

Writing every song is a little journey. The first note has to lift you.

The spring, summer, is quite a hectic time for people in their lives, but then it comes to autumn, and to winter, and you can't but help think back to the year that was, and then hopefully looking forward to the year that is approaching.

We called the album 'Amarantine' to mean everlasting. Poets use the word to describe an everlasting flower and I loved the image of that.

Over in the UK, the music press can be brutal. They can say wonderful things about you one week, and the next week, you're in the can.

The bright days of my youthThey were full of hopeThe great journey that was before me thenWas what was destined to be, bye bye.Now I'm sorrowful,The day is long past.Alas and woe, oh.