When I was growing up in the 50’s and early 60’s my main diet of music I listened to was commercial pop radio. We had Mario Lanza records, Winifred Atwell piano records and not much in between. My first Beatles song I ever heard was “From Me to You” in 1963. Its compactness, stunning singing and song organisation made an everlasting impact on me. Great tune, not very long, probably about two minutes.

This inspired me to want to write pop songs. At sixteen, after a disastrous love affair, I tried to start writing. This initial reason why I started writing has stayed with me throughout my life. It was that joining up for emotional expression with song, which as been so important in my life.

Although I learnt classical piano, it was the guitar that I used to start the song writing process. For me, the ability to create a groove without overpowering this with too much accompaniment, was its great strength. To this day it is still my song writing instrument weapon of choice.

I need privacy to write. What initially comes out is sometimes a mixture of sounds and words that may crystallise into something I can grasp onto. Some songs I will have made a choice of key and feel before I start. I have often found that the first thing that appears may lead to something more permanent.

Inspiration can surprise you, and if it’s particularly great inspiration, I want to immediately follow it up…jump on this train and ride so to speak. If I’m really excited by what’s being revealed, there is an intense passion to finish it right there and then.

That’s when the Dictaphone gets switched on, if the batteries haven’t been swiped by the kids, and I reach for my ‘Farmers Diary” book (where I write my lyrics) and pen. Sometimes, if the inspiration is strong, I cannot afford to return to the everyday to look for these tools.

Often good songs don’t take long. I like to finish all the lyrics in one stream as if I’ve created an internal landscape. This is often hard to return to, it almost feels a race against time to stay in that creative writing space.

Of course some songs remind you of other songs and I don’t think there is a songwriter who has not experienced this, obviously if it’s a dead ringer, out it goes. Otherwise we’ll just keep it a secret.

It is possible to combine different embryonic songs to form a complete song and I’ve had success with this process. Sometimes it can provide a sudden shift of direction which can be very refreshing and take the listeners on a new journey as songs have to have something inherently internally interesting to stand the test of time.

I’ve worked only occasionally with other writers. I enjoy helping other writers finishing their ideas. When I was in the Fourmyula writing with Ali Richardson with was a true writing partnership. We started off with a blank sheet, talked about a lyric idea, sat down and jointly made it all up. But somehow in the end, I craved for a more personal writing experience.

I’ve always been in bands and as outlet for writing, it is a really positive vehicle for a direct route out into the public domain. Somehow the creative process always needs a release.

When a song is aired in public for the first time, any short comings in its pace or construction become obvious and it’s interesting to notice a song that the writer believes is a winner, sometimes does not connect like you believe it would with an audience and vice versa. But there is nothing better than writing a good song, playing it in public and people really getting it.

When I was younger I was always trying to write a number one song! Whipping my style into some pre ordained shape. This can be counter productive and a little masochistic. For me, trying to render a honest description of my feelings in song, is what I enjoy. If something hooky and cool comes out of this, well and good, but somehow the trueness of a song is the thing that really connects with people and tends to last the distance.

I’m not a big user of technology, love a good loop feel, but in the end you still have to write the song. Though it’s not always essential songs have really meaningful lyrics to be popular, for me I do put a lot of effort into my lyrics. I think as you go through your life, whenever you’re writing, you write to the issues that are important to you at that particular stage of life.

I still get nervous playing my new ideas to my band, there is nothing like that feeling when quietness is reflected back from them which means the song is just ok! Invariably they are right, although some songs go on to have a life of their own.

I try and not be too self critical while I am writing. As writers we can all see through our creative process and while going down that road basically destroying what we create. I leave the final judgement to the outside world.

An unusual observation I’ve noted is that I’ve found some places in the house work better than others for writing, bit like a dog and a basket, I can’t explain this, it just is. I definitely write better when I have the house to myself and it is true you have to make this space available for you to create.

I tend to write about my internal world which can be a little dark and sometimes I crave for a more buoyant approach. I guess your internal emotional world view is important and it can get very strange in the albeit imaginary. But I know we all share that, and it’s a space I need to continue to write.