As a non musician (I sing, I play guitar, I used to play the piano – but none in any sort of professional way) ‘the studio’, ‘recording an album’ is something magical to me and I’ve always liked to keep it that way. Once in a blue moon you get to read an interview with a musician in ‘Sound on Sound’ or some similar geek muso glossy, and it ruins the layman’s experience of music. ‘Oh yeah, we had this bass groove lying around and we were jamming and got that on tape and then I improvised some lyrics over it… hey presto, our new single’. Ugh. I don’t want that! I want to hear about divine inspiration, no more, no less.

It has to be grand, it has to be bigger than life. It has to be an extremely sophisticated process that only GODS can master.

A few months ago I was shown around a little studio in Dublin (not U2’s). The owner fiddled with the knobs a bit, showed me some ProTools, played me some tapes – but as they weren’t recording at the time, the magic was preserved. I was still clueless and happy to be that way.

Now look at the cams. Look at what’s unfolding before our very eyes. That’s not hi tech. That’s not bigger than life.

That’s your cousin Frankie recording a tape in his back room.