I just want people to leave a show and go, 'That was the most rockin' show I've ever seen.' I hope people can just roll with me a little bit - you know?

The first record I was really into was the Drifters' 'When My Little Girl Is Smiling.'

'Astral Weeks' is a brilliant album, and songs like 'Moondance' are just beautiful lyrically.

Sometimes it's good to just sing and let the words come out. Whatever comes out is valid because it's what you were thinking.

I know some bands that are precious about their new ideas. They're conscious of the fact that people can - even from mobile phones - begin to get clearer and better recordings of the songs... so they're a lot more hesitant to play them.

As I'm getting older, I work out what I want and what I need. And I just need to go home and see the people I love and write.

If you're going to call yourself a musician, you have to go out and make music.

When I've got time off, my feet get itchy really quickly.

Sometimes when you get frustrated, your back is against the wall, and you come out fighting and knock out three songs in as many days.

I am not steeped in all that angst. I'm never going to be Sid Vicious.

My best mates when I was 19 were all in their 30s. I used to go to all their house parties, and they were crazier than the guys who were 17, 18. They were so much more liberated than the people who were apparently shackle-free.

Charts and learning the politics behind making a record - it's pretty soulless.

It's all a progression towards hopefully one day making a record that can be the definitive you can offer. Some bands come in with that at first, and the great bands never really stray from that. I want to earn my stripes.

I try not to get too self-absorbed.

When you're waking up every day, and it's all about you, I don't consider that to be a way to live your life if you can help it. I think people who know me know that I find time to enjoy myself and not take life - or myself - too seriously at all.

When things get too grand or too big, I struggle to keep up with it all.

All of a sudden, my picture's in the paper, or I'm making a music video, and it's still the most surreal experience. I thought you could learn, and you would acclimatise, but I really haven't.

Sometimes the last thing you want to do is to go on stage and bare your soul in front of hundreds of complete strangers. Singing the same songs night after night can remind you of things you'd rather forget.

Music is a good way to channel your fragile, vulnerable, needy side, but it's also something to rejoice in.

I come from Paisley, the same town as David Sneddon, who won 'Fame Academy.' When he was late for his homecoming reception in the town hall, they held an impromptu talent show. I ended up singing some songs, and that's how I was discovered.

The more I watch politicians in action, it just makes me angry.

The success was a difficult thing for me to get my head round. When it gets too much, I just have to disappear - to sort my head.

Paisley offered me and my family a life, way back, and it has continued to do so.

The first time I did everything was in Paisley - the first time I went to the pictures or the bowling or the ice rink or the swimming baths.