Having written and recorded his debut album Beautiful Desolation in his hometown of Leeds, Paul Thomas Saunders is now based in Hove. He talks about his earliest inspirations and why recording at home beats an LA studio.

“I’d been in bands, smashing away at guitar strings but I never consciously tried to write a song until I was 16. The first song was called Amy Atherstone and it was about a girl, Amy, who found a ‘telepathic gun’ which had ‘methods of predicting what she wanted having done’. Ah, youth.

“The biggest gig I’ve played to date is technically the tent at Hard Rock Calling. It was one of our first shows, but while the tent is supposed to hold about 3,000 people, at noon on Friday it's more like 50. Tops.

“The album Beautiful Desolation came together through a mutual love of music between a school friend, Max Prior, who co-produced it with me. Our influences include Vangelis, Serge Gainsbourg and everything outside the Kármán line. We thought it would be exciting to throw a ton of drones, echo and flange together then get another friend of ours, Ali Thynne, to contribute some outrageously Cajun beats to it. Something was missing, so we asked another close friend, Kate Matthews, to add some Jason And The Argonauts-era siren vocals. Then through a fortunate series of events, the truly wonderful folks at Atlantic helped us put it out. The weirdest things happen in Leeds.

“I had lived in a hotel gatehouse with Max and Ali for a few years and I had always recorded music with Max in his bedroom. When it came to recording the album, we didn’t want to change our method. We’ve developed musically together since we were teenagers so the last thing we needed was an unfamiliar environment. I like to think we have a good synergy. It’s also cheap.We live in austere times. You don’t need a mood-lit studio in LA with a producer/ co-writer who’ll bleed you dry. If you do, you’re faking it. A desk in your bedroom with a computer on it will suffice.”

For more information visit www.PaulThomasSaunders.com