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How much of your day is occupied by music, thinking about it, playing it.
Damon: Over the last ten years I've spent far too much time thinking about music, to the point of distraction.

There's a great story about Brian Wilson who said he had so many musical thoughts in his head that it was unbearable. His prolific output was due to trying to get these thoughts out. Can you relate to that in any way?
Damon: That's what it's like to be a song-writer. When you're writing an album the songs are constantly in your head all day long. You can't escape them. You're constantly trying to better them or see what musical accompaniment would best suit that song. Brian Wilson might be different because he was mentally disturbed by it a lot of the time but for me it's the physical thing of having songs there. I've learned to switch off from it to a degree because you can't have it there all the time. I haven't got time to unleash all these songs any more. I'm willing to wait for the next period when I've got time to write before it bothers me

Are you a fan of The Coral?
Damon: I think the Coral are brilliant. The song 'Dreaming of You' is my favourite song on the record. I met them a while ago before they got their record deal. I think the current climate's strange - I think there are bands who are getting too much focus and others that aren't.

Who do you think deserves a bit more?
Damon: Myself and bands like The Coral as opposed to the same band every week in the NME. I think there's such a wide range of music that's out there that needs to be heard. At the moment, there's a fascination with American guitar music and a lot of it is fantastic but the press try and create scenes that don't really exist.

Speaking as a Northern lad, why do you think a city such as Manchester produces so many great bands and still continues to do so?
Damon: Maybe it's down to the geography or hard-ship of the place. The cliched answer is you're ultimately talking about working class places. Maybe certain places exist with more soul and affinity to music. Maybe cities like Manchester and Liverpool are not too big to lose focus. London's such a huge melting pot that you don't get the same rate of London bands coming through as it's much bigger. Manchester accelerated my climb to where I am because historically you have bands like The Smiths, New Order, The Stone Roses and loads of others.