…and the way you the write songs, do you have a specific approach? Generally, yes. I basically sit at alone at the piano for as long as it takes until I come up with something that I like. I almost always write the music and lyrics at the same time, just piecing the song  together as it comes to me. Sometimes I can come up with songs quite quickly, other times it may takes weeks.  It’s a never ending process…when I complete a song there is that tiny moment of satisfaction but then I think that I need to keep moving on and write something new, just in case I dry up.

I heard "The furthest shelter" as a sort of private journal, was that your intention? Not really. Generally my songs are a mixture of fiction and my observations of life. There’s maybe a little bit of self-biography, but not much. 

..and you worked for 2 years on the album? Perhaps more than two years. When I decided to record the album I had a lot of ideas floating around so it took a quite while to gather them all together. I wanted to try and record something that I was going to be as happy with as I could be. Of course, as an artist, it’s something that I don’t think you can never achieve but you have to at least try and when you’re doing most of it on your own, as I was, it did take a little bit of time.

What can we expect from the new album? Well, I’m not really sure… [laughs]. What I can say is that It will again be based around the piano and have a natural sound and production. That’s the type of sound I like so I’m always going to pursue that. As far as the songs go, we’ll have to wait and see…

Return to first page of interview...