A singer for me is more like someone who is standing alone with a microphone like Scott Walker, rather than someone who is bashing a plank and is spitting all over a microphone.
Because I shout a lot during the show, in the morning I've always lost my voice and gradually it comes back during the day. I slurp a bit of honey, lemon and ginger back and everything seems to be all right.
Being a singer now I have to get all fussy... I must have my ginger and lemon and all that.
But live shows are cool. I just got back into the idea of enjoying it live.
But those audiences in Spain, they were just so stoned. I don't like playing to audiences like that because they just don't do anything. I'm up here with my band and we're working really hard and they are just stoned.
I don't think of myself as a singer really.
I had a breakthrough, I think my life just became calmer, I gave up drinking. My priorities changed as I had a young daughter. The group didn't want me to record for the Think Tank album... so I took it as a sign to leave.
I haven't listened to a Blur record in ages. Not because I don't like it, I've just been listening to other stuff.
I liked Germany; I'm not into Berlin, it's too huge and empty and imposing, but Munich was good.
I love the magic of the studio.
I sing, but I don't think of myself as a singer.
I suppose my little Martin acoustic guitar is quickly becoming a prize possession. It's a lovely guitar. I bought it at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2001 before I had cleaned up.
I think a lot of cynicism has dropped away from my shoulders since I stopped drinking.
I think now, more than anytime I can remember, bands are sounding pretty similar whether they're English or American, from Manchester or London... or Leeds or Welsh or Irish.
I think of someone like Mariah Carey as a singer.
I'm a bit of lunatic with shoes and jackets and jeans. It's just how I am.
I'm not going to pretend that I am the best thing in their life and they have to be totally loyal.
I'm still amazed by the process of recording.
I'm still trying to discover my position on my own artwork and hopefully at this exhibition someone will come and tell me. I'm open to listening to criticism.
I've always looked at shoes as being immensely beautiful things.
If you go near the fridge there's beer, but if you don't go near the fridge it's not as if there are crates of beer and scotch lying around.
It was quite nice meeting up because we went through a lot together and we haven't really seen each much other to communicate one to one for quite a long time.
It's a bit loose and the people in my group have got other groups. They don't have to have a total allegiance to me. I think that's really a bit weird and showing some weird insecurity.
It's mostly Mars Bars and peanuts and cheese and you go to the fridge and there's Red Bull and Beer. It's not like people are holding me down and pouring beer in my face.
It's the clothes that influence the music I'm going to play.
It's the faster bands that made me want to play guitar, bands like The Jam.
Like, Mission Of Burma to me always sounded almost like they were part of the British Arty New Wave. I kind of like that. I like not being able to tell the difference.
Manchester has it's own pride and London has it's sort of pride and sometimes we can be a bit mean to each other, but I think if we dig the music we can get on really well.
Playing and singing at the same time is pretty cool, but sometimes it's difficult to know when you can just really let go a bit because you've got to get back to bloody microphone and sing some stuff.
The other guys drink, but they don't drink anywhere near what I used to. And I think they're slightly respectful of the fact that I'm off it, so it's not a problem.
There are a lot of people who can do it on the guitar and sing at the same time, but I think what is harder is bass players that can play the bass and sing.
There were some extremely good teachers there that were great artists really in their own right. It was actually very hard to concentrate on getting down to going any work being an art student especially when it's a flighty thing at best.
There's a focus that hasn't been there for ages and ages and some American bands are sounding quite English like they did in the late 70s and early 80s.
This set-list is strange because there's a big bit in the middle where we really have to concentrate, and then we just go a bit mad.
To me it's a similar struggle writing a song as to painting a picture because you're dealing with a similar sort of truth. You know when you're lying. You do when you're writing lyrics and making music and you do when you're painting a picture. Other people can tell as well pretty quickly.
When Blur first started and we were playing Manchester the Hacienda was the place to go. That was where a lot of exciting stuff was happening and London was pretty dead.
When I got cleaned up in the Priory I realized with a clearer head that my priorities had changed. They should have changed and I hadn't noticed it.
With my daughter, who at the time was one, my domestic life needed to take more precedent and really with my own self I needed to develop quite a bit more. So that put Blur down the list of priorities quite a lot by the time I came to thinking about it.
You know Manchester is always a bit of a hard place for people coming from London, just with all the history. Manchester has this immensely huge and healthy history musically.
Has a daughter called Pepper (born in 2000).
Is an accomplished artist, his most recent exhibition being at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in October 2004.
Won Best Solo Artist at the 2005 NME Awards, beating the likes of Eminem and Morrissey.
Among his favorite bands is the Swedish band "Bob Hund".
Runs his own record label, Transcopic Records, through which he has released five solo albums to date: "The Sky Is Too High", "The Golden D", "Crow Sit On Blood Tree", "The Kiss Of Morning", "Happiness In Magazines" and "Love Travels At Illegal Speeds".
Released his album "Love Travels at Illegal Speeds" in March 2006.
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