“I have lots of plastic surgery and I have been letting the bruises go down,” David Gray jokes when asked where he has been for the past four years.
Despite owning up to “being bored” after finishing touring on the back of Foundling – his 10th album – in 2010, he couldn’t sound more buoyant talking about his new work.
The singer-songwriter has sold millions of albums and performed to sell-out crowds across the world but says the pressures of writing, performing and touring all became a little too much.
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“I de-humanised. It was a way of coping when writing music, taking it on tour and then doing it all again,” the 45-year-old explains.
“The blinkers came on and I took it on as a responsibilty. The weight upon me, it was like a prison sentence and yet this was meant to be a joyous creative process.
“It wasn’t like I was lacking creatively, it was how I was as a human.
I was de-humanised, trying to do the best I could for my family, for my fans.
“I came to the end, not just of the album but of an era.
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“I sat down to write new songs when I got off tour but I was just bored.”
Searching for a new direction, David enlisted the help of producer Andy Barlow (from electronic music duo Lamb) to create his latest album, Mutineers, which comes out later this month.
“It was a bit of a creative re-think,” says David.
“His brief was – don’t let me make the same record I’ve made before, take me out of my comfort zone. He’s a very gentle kind of guy, but courageous.
“He really took me on creatively in a way that no one else has ever done. But it was a tortured process because I found it so hard to take at times that he would tear up bits of my work in front of my eyes.
“I always write melody first and lyrics second, so I started to write lyrics down and think, right, I’m going to put this to music now. And that was a bizarrely uncomfortable process.
“And I was layering my voice – something I just found myself doing on a lot of the new tracks. Again, to get away from the density of my voice, it’s so loud.”
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Now David is about to show off his new material on a 海角视频 tour, which kicks off at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on June 23.
“I am just looking forward to it and playing with a band. It is a new beginning. There will be eight of us – seven people singing plus a drummer. It will be almost orchestral.
“I have three days spare between now and September. It will be relentless. But I am tough so I am not worried about wear and tear. However, the voice worries me and the wear and tear on the singing,” he says.
But despite his concerns, David doesn’t take particular care of his greatest asset.
“I treat it with contempt. I kick my guitar around and I don’t really do vocal warm ups, I just have a long sound check,” he says.
It is nearly 15 years since White Ladder, the album he recorded in his bedroom as a young and ambitious folk-rock singer, changed his life forever.
And it was the whirlwind success of that album which has changed his life completely.
“I am an inch-and-a-half smaller,” he jokes when asked how it has changed him.
“That was the definitive moment when you look up and realise suddenly you have changed,” he says seriously.
“It made me what I am. I don’t cling to it, I can talk about it as a part of my past.
“It was a wonderful thing getting there – to the very top. It was another world that took a bit of getting used to.
“Success and fame is a hall of mirrors – it makes you self-conscious, you get paranoid about what people are saying.
“When everyone panders to you, picks you up in a limo, gives you first-class flights, invites you to Champagne receptions and you have suddenly got hundreds of new friends. It is not great for the brain.”
So since kicking off his career more than 20 years ago has he seen that distinctive voice of his change?
“I think my voice has got richer and stronger,” he explains.
“It has density and intensity and colour but on the new album I have found a new way of singing, going for the harmonies, using it more like a chord. I am singing much softer and more sensitively.”
And although David hopes his fans will like his new approach, his family are a tougher crowd to please – especially his two daughters, Ivy, eleven, and Florence, eight.
“I am getting it in the neck with the 11-year-old who has reached her early teens and has lots of opinions,” he says.
“They say ‘come on dad can’t you jolly it up a bit – get Calvin Harris or David Guetta in’. But they have given me the thumbs up for this record.”
* David Gray will play Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on June 23. His album Mutineers is out on June 30.
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