Japan is quite weird because they wait for you to say something before they respond. You can literally hear a pin drop, they don't make a sound until you say something to the crowd.

We've got a great bench of songs, and the people have a really good time at our Stereophonics's shows. People are the same all over the world. If we can play football stadiums and arenas in one country, there's no reason we can't play them in another country. People are people.

Big shows are more like events and small shows are more like traditional gigs.

I don't really know how to do anything else except music. But I do. I've never felt more comfortable doing it. When I was put into arenas and stadiums when I was 27, I always thought somebody was going to say, 'No, they're not here for you.' You don't quite believe that they actually like you, because it's an extreme change in your life. Which is insane really, because they bought the ticket. So you start feeling more comfortable in your skin the more you do something, or the older you get.

It's a completely different way of working when you have your own place for recording. It's like if you were a painter, and you do loads of painting, and you just pick which paintings you want to exhibit. It's a much nicer, freer way of making work; you're not limited to anything, and you can make these cool, weird little albums.

The song Dakota was first written in Paris. I was doing a promo trip. It was snowing and the hotel room was really cold and boring and for some reason I just had a go of the guitar and the song came pretty quick.

I didn't really feel any pressure when I've made records, I haven't as yet anyway. I feel when I'm making a record that I'm so excited about making new songs that when I'm doing demos of new songs, as soon as I make one that's really different I get really excited about the record, I don't care about the last record anymore.