What can we expect from the new album and how does it differ from your last?

Well, there's some new songs on there played and arranged by the band Dearland and me. There wasn't much of a steady band on the first record and I think this difference can be felt between the two. There's also more to dance to here and some heavy metal.

When beginning to work on this album, did you feel any extra trepidation given how well-received Ash Wednesday was?

A second record is just that, you have the experience, whatever it was, of the first behind you. Probably would have been more difficult and seemingly more pointless making a second had no-one wanted anything to do with the first. I like this 'extra' trepidation, as if there surely is at least some in doing anything. As much as I relate, man we do our best, don't we, to get rid of it once and for all.

Why the band this time around? What new pleasures and challenges did that bring?

We started forming well before it was clear that Ash Wednesday was going to see light of day. It was absolutely the thing we all wanted to do at the time. So when it came time to record some new songs there was no question 'why?' in the air. Songs, like cars in a production line, can be dressed much quicker with 4 persons attending to them and be up and running with amazing, to the lone composer, alacrity. It sometimes can seem too easy which is when I try and check my inclination to manufacture difficulties.

Your lyrics are evidently a major part of your songs; do you write them first or the music? And are you equally as ruthless with each? Which is the most challenging, cathartic, rewarding?

I don't know, it all happens so fast and then so slow that i can't really describe it. They usually limp together towards the finish line. Ruthless until the time comes for compassion, like when trying to type out some words that will do so you can record the thing.

When you were first learning to play, whose music were you desperate to master?

Living color, Randy Rhodes, Travelling Wilburys, Yngwie Malmsteen, Antonio Vivaldi, Yes, Simon and Garfunkel, Guns n Roses, Ravi Shankar (good luck), Soundgarden etc.

And who do you like to listen to/strum along to now?

Last thing I strummed along to was a great song that Wyndham discovered, called Streamline Cannonball by Tennessee Earnie Ford or something.

Are there any surprises in your collection?

I'm looking to my left and see Nothing's Shocking.

You have been compared to some pretty great artists (Dylan, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley) and it’s perhaps natural for people to make associations in that way when describing music; but how do you feel about it? How would you define your work?

Best not to I think. The minute one starts to describe anything I think it starts to die or else becomes actually and essentially imperceptible. Of course it's 'natural' to do so as we are raised to organize it all so but my hunch is that it is not NATURAL.

You get a great response to your live shows. Do you see yourself as a performer or a studio artist primarily? Which do you enjoy more?

I think it's mostly what kind of mood one is in from day to day. Really anything done or undone has the potential to be ecstatic or miserable. I do both, perform and record, and at times each seems a completely strange thing to do with one's time. I think that must be true with any occupation under the sun.

Do you value SXSW as a crucial platform for emerging artists to gain wider exposure?

The first time we went it seemed to work the way we all hoped it would. I there met the people who would put out the records and those who would help organize the whole operation. At this point I must say I'm not 100% sure of it's value for the band and me but I'm told it remains great, the value that is, so here we go happily.

The internet has had a massive effect on the music business… How does it feel to be in the middle of it all as it happens? Are you making the most of the new promotional tools it brings, or are you more resistant to these changes? Do you keep an eye on the blogs?

It feels alright. Change being the actual constant state of things always, when you have one paradigm foundering and one floundering into shape, it's exciting to be part of it. Of course there is some apprehension about who will be fittest and who will be shuffled out but there is no more glory in one than the other and we're all bound to the same place. It's only how many dance steps you can fit in before the music stops. That said, I do hope, and actually suspect, that someone is making the most of these new promotional tools on my behalf.

Listen and download the album here»