Nokia

I was standing outside a studio in London one morning when I bumped into Alex Lloyd. I more or less said, hey, Alex Lloyd, we should write a song together. We got together a few days later and wrote 'A Thousand Lies'. It's about two ex lovers that obviously still share feelings, but neither of them can be totally honest with each other, or themselves, in fear of ruining this one moment to be together again. ‘A Thousand Lies’ was the very first song we recorded and as soon as we had "The Take" I knew I wanted it to be the opening song on the album.

I often hint in my lyrics at the idea that women are complicated and confusing creatures. I wanted this song to be celebration of that complexity and unpredictability. "Everywhere I go, I should carry an umbrella just in case But I do like to catch the summer rain when it's falling out of place And I wouldn't want it; I wouldn't want it any other way"

This is one of the moments on the record where what you hear, vocals and all, is one live take The only overdubs on this are the slide solo and the background vocals. Everything seemed to fall perfectly into place.

'Heroes' was one of the first things I wrote for the new album. I was trying to capture the feeling that everything in the world is coming apart. (Climate change, economic crisis, etc, etc). Asking the question, "Who's gonna save me?" knowing that the answer is nobody. We're going to have to save our selves. It’s up to all of us.

This was written with Iain Archer, who co-wrote Snow Patrol's breakthrough album Final Straw. I had spent a few days just wandering around London and Paris before starting a solid month of songwriting. Both those cites are incredibly enchanting and I couldn't shake the idea of "We could get lost in this city". Iain has a studio in the back of this little church, just out of the centre London, which was the perfect place. The first thing he played when he picked up his acoustic guitar was that opening guitar riff, and from there, the rest just seemed to write itself.

This is one of the few things I wrote while in LA to record. I had come up with the verses and chorus and Larry Klein had the idea for the instrumental bridge section. Looking back, I find it funny that the one song written by the artist and the producer together is a song about compromise.

Larry Klein played me this beautiful piece of music written by Larry Goldings [Goldings plays all the Piano and Organ on the album] and suggested that it would make a really nice half way marker for the album. We had talked about writing some lyrics for it but I couldn't quite put my finger on what I wanted it to say. A few days before we started recording, on a bus from Hollywood to Venice Beach, I met this homeless man. He had an amazing aura about him. All he wanted was to find someone who could give him a job: a couple of hours a day so he could afford to rent a room and eat some fresh fruit and vegetables. He wasn’t complaining or bittier about anything. He was hopeful. When we reached his stop he got up without saying anything and walked towards the door, but just as he was about to step off the bus he turned back to me and said, “Well my friend, I’d wish you luck but luck can go both ways. I’m going to wish you a miracle. I know that can only be good.” I wrote ‘Little Things’ to serve as a postcard of that moment. Every time I sing it or hear it, I'm back on that bus.

This started off as a song-writing challenge. I wanted to try and tell the story by using opposing language in the verses and the chorus. The verses are very emotional and from the heart. In the chorus the language is very forensic. I love the groove on this track. There are all kinds of interesting layers happening. We recorded the basic band tracks with the drummer, Brian MacLeod, playing brushes on one of those yellow legal notebooks. All the other stuff like the toy bass drum, fingers on the snare, snaps and claps etc were added later as overdubs. That rhythm immediately puts me in a good mood.

The entire Groove on this track is built around that rhythm guitar sound. My experience with guitars had pretty much been limited to acoustic instruments but for this Larry wanted to experiment with more of a hollow body electric vibe for my part. Almost an old JJ. Cale sort of thing. I saw this as an excuse to visit every guitar store in a 40-mile radius of LA. I found an extremely cool 1964 Gretsch Anniversary that is the feature of this song. In fact that guitar ended up being played on almost half the album.

To put it simply, some women are more dangerous than others.

Written with Aqualung's Matt Hales. Matt's approach to the piano is very similar to mine so writing with him felt at times like I was co-writing with myself. ‘This Is Where It Starts’ is a tale of two lost souls traveling down parallel roads. The story feels quite sad in parts but I think the song still manages to leave you with a real sense of hope. Instead of using drums we had Brian tapping his foot and slapping his hands against his legs. It gives this track a sound unto itself.

When I finish writing a song, I usually have a pretty good idea of how I want it to sound once it's recorded. With 'Far Enough Away', I had always envisioned it being a very small, intimate song. When we started to play it with the band, as each section of the story unfolded, the arrangement seemed to expand with it. By the time it reaches the chorus the music has become that place the person in the story is trying to get to. In some ways, what I expected to be one of the smallest moments on the album ended up one of the more majestic.

With the idea of having "little things" sitting at the half way mark, I though it would be a nice idea to have a second "little" song to close the album. 'If I Didn't Love You' is really just a convoluted way of saying I miss you.