M: I never think about it, to be honest. I simply do what I do. But I don't think the songs are painfully naked, to use your term. I just think the fact is that most other people don't really sing in an intimate way. And when they think they do, they're not. Everything is adhering to some sort of pop-rock cliché.

PB: One of the new songs is called "I'm Not Sorry." It sounds like it could be the title of your autobiography.

M: [Laughs] Well, should it be?

PB: I don't know, I guess that's the question. Is it intended that way or completely unrelated to your outlook on life?

M: It's just a great bubblegum song.

PB: I imagine you're well aware of your relatively huge Hispanic following.

M: Yes. It's fascinating to me. The Hispanic audience, as you said -- I think they prefer to be called Mexican if you ask them -- they look fantastic. And, of course, that's all that's important.

PB: Did it puzzle you at first?

M: No, it never puzzled me, but people wrote about it in a very confused way. They wondered why it should happen. I think it's because of the great bursts of emotion that I have and that Mexican people also seem to have. They're quite volatile in a way. Not dissimilar to Italian people. I mean, they seem to be terribly peaceable, but their emotions are very volatile.

PB: Is it satisfying to see a whole subculture embrace your music in a completely different cultural moment than it was embraced back in the '80s?

M: Well, I think the music always suffered by being considered to be "independent" and "alternative" and so forth. It never really was. It was always much wider than that. I was always trapped in that category, and the label I was with for most of the '90s, Sire/Reprise, always maintained that [the music] was only alternative/independent, which it never was. It has always been much more accessible. I am not alternative. Alternative to what?

PB: Well, that's always been the question about alternative music in general. Were you disappointed with the way the last album was received, or not received, as the case may be?

M: Yes, I was very disappointed because on the release of the album, the person who had signed me at the label was sacked. All the people he had signed were removed, shall we say, from the label and I was one of them. I wasn't removed because of anything that I had failed to do, it was simply because of the association I had. So that happened on the release of the album, and the album didn't really stand a chance.

PB: People talk about you being extremely reclusive. Do you feel like you make an extraordinary effort to keep people, and the press in particular, at bay?

M: I must be quite frank: I do. Because I don't want to get in a situation where I garble and I yatter. It's very important to me that I'm not simply providing lip service or just smiling at anybody that comes past. I want to actually concentrate on what I'm doing. It's so easy to get caught in a whirlwind of meeting the press down at the pub. I don't want to be like that. I want to try at least to be rational over the things I do.

PB: Is it difficult to maintain that?

M: No, it's incredibly easy. You just bolt your door and close the curtains. You should try it.

PB: Do you worry that putting out a solo album will invite unwanted intrusions in your life?

M: I hope so.

PB: I'd be remiss if I didn't offer you the opportunity to quash any rumors of a reconciliation with Johnny Marr and/or a Smiths reunion.

M: Well, I have just made the best album of my career, so why would I be thinking about the Smiths? Why? Can you think of any reason?

PB: I had to at least set it up so you could knock it down. Do you think people's memory of the Smiths and their importance squares with your memory of the band and its legacy?

M: I hope not, because I wouldn't really wish those thoughts on any human being.

PB: Are you proud of the band's legacy, though?

M: I'm proud of the songs and I'm ashamed of everything else. Meaning the videos, the clothes.

PB: Do you think you're happy these days? Or, at least happier than you were 10 or 15 years ago?

M: I know I'm happier these days.

PB: Why?

M: Because I'm lucky.

PB: In what way?

M: [Laughs] Well, I'm lucky to be happier now than I was then. Trivialities aside, I do feel very happy and balanced these days. To be honest, it's a place I never really thought I'd find myself. Life is full of surprises.