It's a shame in a way that people come and go with one album.

I think the older I get the more creative I get, I don't have the distractions that I had when I was younger.

I was very much a mess, as a person. I'd come from a very turbulent teenage life, with parents who had broken up in a very bad way, and a lot of illness at school.

I have a long history with Soho: even when I was at art college, I came down to Soho to work in the summer.

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 liked the idea of writing a song saying I'm happy with who I am, and I don't mind if people think I'm some old git.

Frank Sinatra said this great thing, that singing isn't about singing in tune, or great technical singing. It's about making people believe in the story you're telling.