I owe everything to the musicians I work with.

I haven't lost my innocence particularly. I'm always ready to pretend I haven't. Yeah, it is a shame in a way.

I'm not a flowerchild or anything like that... whatever it was.

The idea of actually taking sharp turns left and right has always intrigued me, but I've never really been bold enough to do that. As musicians go, I've allowed myself to be carried by other people's enthusiasm into places where I've learned a lot. There is no real tumult anymore. What I want to do, I do! I'm pretty fortunate.

And there are certain songs that are really timepieces and shouldn't be touched. But some of them are a celebration of good humour and sensibility and I think that's okay. I don't care about the past, I'm a musician with ambition.

I like to make my voice sound like a piece of tin that's been stuck on the side of a chair, lifted up as far as it would go and then let to spring - "doooiiinng." I like to make it into a piece of metal from time to time and I can do it, both with the movements in my throat and with, uh, my little toys... So I like to take it beyond just a voice, more into the realms of a weapon.

The States were much more fun. L.A. was L.A. It's not L.A. now. L.A. infested with jaded 12-year-olds is not the L.A. that I really dug.