I'd done two years on a soap opera where I was shooting things every day and they gave me a hard time about that, which I think is the wrong way to teach a young actor. They just made me really, really self-conscious about everything I did, which is the opposite of what you need to be when you're filming.

There was so much great music around in the 60s, stuff like The Small Faces, but I also love The Jam.

Weirdly, when I was in drama school my accent probably got stronger because of that sense of identity when you leave home and go to somewhere where there are loads of people from different places. Holding on to being Welsh and where I was from was a real crutch for me.

The music is mine. Theres nothing to hide behind. Thats where you see the real person.

I just want my music to be put out there, not shoved in peoples faces. I want to keep it relaxed.

But acting is my main profession so it's about finding the right balance. I don't know how, if I went any further with the music, I would manage to do both - I would have to take time off from acting because I couldn't do both at same time. I could do six months on and six months off perhaps. But I'm really proud of the record. I've worked on it for a while and I'm really glad to finally get the album out, having done three EPs prior to its release.

It's a weird thing with accents. When I go home it gets a lot stronger, when I've had a few beers it gets a lot stronger.