M: I've been touring a lot and looking for a deal. I've been hauled around to most of the majors in America. As you can very well imagine, that's been a frightening process. So I'm very happy with the way things have worked out with Sanctuary. They seem to be the most human record company in the world at the moment. Everybody else is absolutely insane.

PB: Have you been writing songs the whole time, or are most of these tunes written reasonably recently?

M: It's 50-50, but the best songs on the album were the ones that were written very recently. There's a lot to be said, I think, for the pressure of just getting in there and doing it. Sometimes when you have a lot of leisure time, with songwriting, it doesn't bring out the best in you. It's best sometimes if your back is against the wall.

PB: Do you hear a difference between the songs that were written more recently and the ones you plucked from longer ago?

M: I do, but perhaps other people won't. I hear an advancement, and I don't know whether that's because I'm not as young as I used to be -- but then who is as young as they used to be? There's something to be said for having been around for, shall we say, a certain number of years. I would kill myself before I'd mention the word "maturity."

PB: You mentioned shopping around for a record deal. Is that the main reason for the long layoff, or was there a time when you weren't that interested in making another record?

M: No, it was absolutely not the second reason. It was only the fact that I didn't have a deal. It became very frustrating. When you have meetings with record companies, they string you along for months and months, so suddenly you turn around and a year has gone. And of course, being here in Los Angeles, it really is the city of promises. So whoever you go to, they'll keep you dangling for nine months.

PB: Were the songs really slaved over or more just banged out?

M: The songs have never really been slaved over, ever. It goes back to that comment about having one's back to the wall. Certain times if you give less thought to things and just do it and follow your emotions, it happens more naturally and sounds better. The songs have never been painstakingly slaved-over because that's just not the way I'd like to make music. I'm not a professor. I absolutely still follow the heart.

PB: Were there any specific themes you wanted to get across in these songs?

M: I think the theme is simply my observations of life. That's all it's ever been about. Since the very first day I started to write and to record, it's never changed. It's quite literally just a matter of plugging in my diary.

PB: The opening song "America Is Not The World" is pretty unsparing.

M: Well, I think the basic fact is, America is not the world. I don't think anyone could look at that title and say, "Oh, yes, it is the world!" It's just a simple, basic fact. I'm not saying America is a horrible place. I'm just saying that it's not the world. Am I wrong?

PB: Well, I don't think you're wrong, but implied within the title seems to be a criticism of the current outlook of many of the folks running the country. I mean, there are plenty of people in the Bush Administration who act like America is the world.

M: They're wrong, though. [Laughs] They should look at a map, which obviously they never do.

PB: How much is your songwriting influenced by what you see on the news or read in the newspaper?

M: Being a reasonably intelligent person, of course, I never ever watch the news. Certainly the news in America is hysterically silly. It's slightly more bearable in England but only just -- because England is trying desperately to become Americanized. I never watch the news. It's always so depressing, isn't it? And certainly in America, the whole point of television news is to keep people in absolute fear of their lives. Of everything. Which is absurd.

PB: Your songs have become synonymous with a sort of naked emotionalism. Are you ever self-conscious about writing songs that fit the "Morrissey" image too well, or not well enough for that matter?