If you're talking to an architect, he can look at a blank piece of paper, and once the initial design is there, the formula kicks in. Each room should have something unique and different about it - much the same way that in a song, every eight bars or so, a new piece of information should be introduced.

I listen to the far left which informs the far right. Somewhere in the middle is where we end up.

I'm in an odd position because I write across so many genres for so many people and they all influence me, and if I'm going to write as honest an album as possible, it's going to be layered.

Any time you have a song that is directly connected to a very specific musical trend of the moment, you have immediately cut it off at the knees, doesn't matter if it goes to number one in the world, if you're too attached to a production style.

I knew I could make money from songwriting, so how much and when was not really the question.

The Beatles are the most credible band in the history of music.

There is maybe a cynicism because of my past as a writer.