Of all the guitars you own, do you have one that you consider special in any way?

"Definitely. It's a Gibson J-45 from 1966. I did my first album with it, and it's super. The neck on it is very thin, which I like - on models produced after 1966 the necks got a little fatter, the lacquer was thicker. I much prefer a thin neck on an acoustic.

"I have a couple of other Gibson acoustics, also from 1966, an LG-1 and an LG-2. They're small guitars, but they sound fantastic, very warm and rich. I like those ones a lot, but yeah, the J-45 that I used on my first record, that's the special one."

Regarding your guitar playing, do you have any kind regular practice routine? Do you sit down and try to work things out?

"On the practice front, I'm playing every single day. At the moment, because of the promotional tour I'm on, I'm in two and three cities a day performing a bunch of songs. So the practice is built in to what I'm doing. On the other hand, it becomes limited to the amount and kinds of songs I play. It's rather a mixed bag. I find that I am getting better, but it's in an off-the-cuff way, and again, it's all based around the songs I get to do. Only occasionally do I find myself at home where I have a good chunk of time, and I can mess around on the guitar and piano."

Are there areas of your guitar playing that you'd like to improve? Specific things you want to work on?

"Yeah, well, now that I'm playing electric a lot more, that's it right there. I want to become a better live player on the electric. In the studio, as you know, you can go back and fix every note if you need to. Live, it's all about getting it right at the moment it's happening. So I want to become a better live player on the electric, for sure."

What kind of gear do you use for demoing and writing?

"I keep it really, really basic. I just whack things down to GarageBand, simple as that. I try not to get too embroiled in the demoing process. My approach is to write the song, record it simply, and have it so that I can remember it for when we go into a proper studio. If I have the chords, the lyrics and the melody down, I'm good.

"Over the course of doing a few albums, I've found that everything changes in a studio. What you thought was a great production idea doesn't work at all; and what you never would have imagined comes out of nowhere. So it's best not to get too married to your demos. Look at them as sketches and nothing more."

There's a wide variety of styles on the new record, but the song Turn Me On might take people by surprise. It's a pretty wild, sexy track. Were you thinking of subverting your sensitive-songwriter image a bit with that one?

"Yeah, it's a lot of fun, that one, isn't it? But no, I wasn't trying to affect my audience or shock them or anything like that. I was just having a good time, that's all.

"To be honest, my record company asked me not to put that track on the record. They thought it was very different from what my fans were used to. But I told them, 'Look, Turn Me On is probably one of the most honest tracks on the record. It's straight-up, it's how I feel, and it's where I'm at in many ways.' So we batted it around, and it made the album. The bottom line is, you're not going to please everyone, but that's not my job. My job as a songwriter and an artist isn't to try to express other peoples' views; my job is to express my view. So there you go."