I don't really have anything against Will Young or Gareth Gates.

I've always been the sort of person who immerses myself in things, and eventually you become part of that life.

Albums, with me, have never had an easy birth. Especially when all the songs are self-written songs.

Knowing what I knew about Russia, as much as I loved the music and was fascinated by the songs and the whole idea of it, I knew it would be a very lengthy and frustrating process.

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.

Soho has got to be at its centre. It's got such a history for rock, pop, poetry, jazz, writers, all those things, and I think it should be valued as such, and protected as this centre for bohemia.

That's the way I work and one day I won't have the energy to do it, so I think it's always good to make the most of your life and living as much as possible.