I start with the subject matter I want to write about. Then I make a musical base for that and create an atmosphere with the music. Once I’ve done that, the lyrics come last.

So I concentrated on the rhythmic side of things, and therefore left a lot of holes. I didn’t want to use big pad chords everywhere. All of the songs are built up of small melodies...

You are talking to a man who can only play a plastic keyboard. Give me anything weighted and I’ve had it. I haven’t got the strength in my fingers to push them down. So I...

And when I started, I also programmed the drum machines with the intention of taking them off and replacing them with acoustic drums.

At the beginning of this album I discovered the computer and had great fun playing with the thing. And I realized that, not being a good keyboard player, I could write things in very small...

But the guitar is my favorite, first and foremost instrument.

I didn’t want to be stuck to rigid tempos. I mean, a band should speed up and slow down. They shouldn’t do it too much, but they do.

I’m still very, very basic with synthesizers and things. l can make them do what I want them to do, but a guitar is how I express myself I suppose.

In the music industry, you meet some not very nice people, some very strange characters.

You think that religion is a thing that is there to help you and to see you through life, and then you wake up one morning and find the entire Irish situation, the civil war...