These days i tend to use one project I do as a kind of offshoot to the next.

I think in the past I think I probably was a little too diverse, probably went from one spectrum to the complete opposite and confusing people.

I was quite naïve, a boy from Southport. When I went to art college in Leeds, I lived in a basement flat, and I heard clunking on the stairs all night, and I thought it was just nurses going to work on the night shift at the local hospital! Then I found out it was all working girls upstairs. I suppose I came from a protected background and had my eyes opened wide by that side of city life.

I thought, I might not look my best, I've forgotten half the words to my songs and I'm suffering from post-traumatic stress, but I've just got to get out there and do it.

So often, the singer is the sound of the record. People think they can cover anything, but the whole voice is the thing that's unrepeatable.

I can imagine moving out to the seaside at some point. I like Brighton, my sister lives there. I'm a seaside boy and whenever I go there, I find myself writing songs about it.

There's no such thing as 'I can't do it'.