Did the personal studio give you more freedom when it came to writing the lyrics?

RD: Yeah, I suppose it has. I mean, when you are doing lyrics for example, sometimes I'll do lyrics without really knowing what I'm writing about. Just basing it on if the line works, and then - it's almost like a subconscious thing - and then you sort of build it up from that, and then you try to find lines that would match something you'd liked but you weren't sure what it meant. It's kind of...so there's a few kind of slightly abstract things on this record, that are just done around lines that seem to work, as opposed to any deep meaning to them.

It seems what you're describing is actually riffing with yourself, yet you usually riff and write with other people.

RD: Lately, I suppose for a while, I have basically been the writer and then I throw it around guys like Mark, who is working with us, and other guys in the band, but these days everybody is so scattered. That has been a little hard because from time to time you need that reaction from other people.

Have you been able to find a way to collaborate with the guys, even though you spend a fair amount of time writing and recording alone?

RD: I can get a fairly decent sounding thing by myself now, where as before, I needed the guy sound-checking things. I use electric drums, because I used to be a drummer, which helps me - so instead of trying to program drum machines and having a rather stiff sort of rhythm to work with, I can come along and actually put a real person drumming - being me - and it gives me a better chance to explain to Bob, our drummer, how I would like it to go, and then he takes it from there.

How do you actually get the new material out to the other guys, before you all end up in the studio?

RD: With a Kurzweil, which has all sort of samples of real instruments - trumpets, saxophones. You build up an entire arrangement, and then we make our own CDs and they're flown out to the guys and they listen. I mean, occasionally we do things for the sax and trumpet, maybe, but basically they listen to it. In fact, we didn't really rehearse this album. We went straight to the studio in Los Angeles for backing tracks and so we did it there.