INTERVIEW WITH Jornal de Notícias

What’s your reaction to the success of “The Furthest Shelter” and in particular the acclaim you have received from the music press? I try not to pay attention to it. At the moment I’m working on the new album and I don’t want that stuff to create any pressure for me. I think I would have preferred not to know but, when I write, I never think of how it might be received by people, I just try to come up with songs I like and that’s it.  It’s all quite surprising and maybe a little frightening... [laughs].

So you don’t read your own press? Not at all. I’m vaguely aware of what’s out there, mainly because I hear it from other people, but I don’t read about myself. The main thing for me is to concentrate on writing and recording, particularly at the moment with the new album. 

How will you be recording the new album. Alone or with a band? In the past I have played in bands, but they can be quite difficult to hold together. I played with some very good musicians who were fantastic songwriters in there own right so I always had the sense that they would want to pursue their own stuff eventually, and rightly so. Now, I consciously work alone during all of the writing and most of the recording process, with the exception of most the guitars, which I play very badly!.  For me, it is easier to work like this.

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