I know acts and I'm not going to name names but these people sold ten million copies the first time and the second album sells three million and it's considered a failure and they're dropped and that's really a shame.

But thankfully my first album 'Wide Screen ' was sort of a critics' darling - everyone raved about it but no one bought it. They only manufactured 10 000 copies I wasn't even in the running for failure!

Making an album should be an honest experience. It shouldn't be about trying to gauge where popular music is today it should be about artistic expression and putting down what you want to put down.

I enjoy making solo albums because over the years it's evolved into more of a genuine personal expression of story-telling and day dreams and I work in a way that has more control.

You only get one album. You only get one single. You get one shot in music. But I have a million different dreams. Why can't I go out and try to achieve them all? Who are you to say I can't?

'American Horror' goes for a very specific kind of Seventies suburban downer ambience - 'Flowers in the Attic' paperbacks Black Sabbath album covers and late-night flicks like 'Let's Scare Jessica to Death.' It even has 'Go Ask Alice'-era urban legends.

I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sounds exactly the same Infact we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.

One day when I was like 9 I heard the Beatles on the radio and I asked my dad who they were. He told me they were the best band in the world and I became obsessed. He started giving me their albums in sequential order and I listened to them - and only them - until I was probably in high school.

I did Albert Hall I got to play the Hall of Fame with Prince. So I've done that kind of stuff for ages. It wasn't until after we finished working on Brainwash my dad's album after he died then it was like 'That phase is over in my life now now we can get on with our music with our band.'

I listened to the radio so I was influenced by everyone from Michael Jackson to Milli Vanilli. But thankfully my dad had a collection of Cat Stevens albums while my mom was listening to jazz.