I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church every week and took the sacraments. It never really touched the core of my being.
I see music as one language. If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised.
I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back.
An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and couldn't take his guitar with him. When I found it in the attic, I'd found a friend for life.
I don't need to manufacture trauma in my life to be creative. I have a big enough reservoir of sadness or emotional trauma to last me.
That sense of failure, I don't know where people put it who don't write songs and aren't able to emote physically. It must go somewhere.
I think you can get the wrong impression about me from my work and think I'm always a bit down. I'm not that way at all. I'm fun-loving.
I try to give the media as many confusing images as I can to retain my freedom. What's real is for my children and the people I live with.
The process of lyric writing is called hell. It's the one part of my life when I have to use my brain. The way to approach it is by being positive.
You have to be yourself. Be very honest about who and what you are. And if people still like you, that's great. If they don't, that's their problem.
