Ghostpoet: Letters from beyond

It's been two years since Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam . Did you take time out to write your new album, or write as you went along?
Kind of a combination of the two, really. With the first record, I was fortunate enough to be able to gig it for a while, so I was on the road a fair bit. I was kind of getting ideas down to come back to at some point in the future, more than anything. Once the album cycle had ended, obviously I wanted to make another record – so it was a case of just taking a bit of time out to figure out who I wanted to work with on it, and then getting in the studio for a few weeks and getting it done.

You recorded and self-produced your debut at home, but this one was done in a professional studio. Was it strange to make that transition?
Nah. Be it a home set-up or a studio, the end result is music, so I relished it. I purposely chose to do it in a studio, to push myself and to force myself to think differently from how I did before. It was good fun.

You worked with Richard Formby, who Wild Beasts once described as their "fifth member".
I very much wanted somebody who would help me mold my ideas better, and to help me technically – because I'm useless with most things, and I can't play an instrument (laughs). So it was all very much about feeling out an instrument and working it out as I go along. I needed somebody who was able to translate what I was trying to do, and Richard was a great guy to work with. I'm a massive fan of Wild Beasts and Darkstar and the other stuff he's worked on, and the moment I knew that he was interested, it just made sense to give it a go.

Your debut was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Are you under pressure to follow it up with a similarly successful second album?
No, not at all. If I'm honest, maybe the first couple of days of the album-making process felt like that – wondering what I'm gonna do, what direction it's gonna take – but then I felt like I had to make a record which was reflective of me as a person. I just had fun with being creative, not thinking about a particular sound, just making music. I'm happy with how it's turned out.
A lot of the music on this album is dark and disconcerting, as are some of the lyrics - such as Comatose 's " I feel lower than I've ever been."
Well, the music that I make is very much of-the-moment; it's about emotion and about feelings. Everything that I try to make very much starts and ends with moments. I was going through a lot of dark times with this album – some great times, too – but that was the sort of stuff that subconsciously wanted to come out. So I just moulded the songs around the stuff I was going through, and this is the result.

Your personal approach ties in with a previous quote about not being interested in being the voice of a generation. Why is it so important to you to make that distinction?
Well, I just feel that I'm one person. I'm not a politician, I'm not in a position of power; I'm an artist. I want my music to be heard by as many people as possible around the world, but I don't feel the need to be a spokesman. If people listen to my music and use it as a particular way in their own lives, or whatever, that's cool, that's great.

But I feel it'd be a bit pretentious for me to say that I'm the voice of a generation. I just wanna be heard, that's all.

The music itself is quite hard to categorise. Is it easier being out on your own, or more difficult without the safety net of a "scene"?
It just feels natural to do what I'm doing, really. I'm not interested in genres, I'm not interested in trying to fit in a particular box, or whatever. I'm just expressing myself through music, and however that comes out is how it's supposed to come out. I guess it's subconscious, more than anything else.

What's the best case scenario for you in a year's time?
Ummm . . . that people don't think the music is shit, and I can still keep making it. (laughs). That's it. I'm a very simple soul, and I just wanna keep making music.

I don't really care about sales; the business side of things doesn't mean anything to me. That's the label's job. If I can continue being creative, I'll be happy.

yyy Some Say I So I Say Light is out on May 3rd on PIAS Recordings