Via the Sun UK

“I wasn’t being true to myself,” he says of the last few years with The Cardinals. “I loved that band.

“And I loved being in that band with Catherine Popper — she was amazing. She was my good friend and I love her playing. The band were balanced because of Cat. I could never have made Cold Roses (his 2005 first album with The Cardinals), one of my favourite records, without Catherine.

“I’ve never told anyone this and it’s great to tell someone finally — but Catherine’s character in a loving way was the inspiration for the character Rose in all my tunes.

“She was the key. So when she split (in 2006), it was really difficult for me. We carried on because we had to. I had made a commitment to shows and records but my heart wasn’t in it. By the time we got to (2008′s) Cardinology I was writing songs for the band (and not himself).

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Those “orphan songs” may be on their own for now but they were born by a good mother who counts among her primary influences The Godfather of Grunge. “Neil Young has been a huge influence on me. Even back when I was doing solo gigs on my tinkery little piano in a coffee house I was playing ‘Old Man’ and songs from Harvest. As the band grew, I got way more into the Crazy Horse stuff and got very excited about the idea that there is a way to be dynamic and tasteful and still really hard edged. I love the line that Neil walks between nervous breakdown and total consciousness. That’s been my mantra in writing songs. I try to keep that balance at all times.

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