“That soundtrack (to Aherne’s ITV film The Fattest Man In Britain) was a godsend,” The Boy admits.

“Last May Caroline Aherne, and Jeff Pope who wrote the script, got in touch. I told them it was really timely for me ‘cos I was struggling with the idea of going in the studio at that point, had been for a year, not really feeling like I had it in me. So that gave me a forced opportunity to have to go in, and it was really liberating. Since doing that soundtrack I went straight in to do this next album, which I’ve finished and is coming out in October. It’s called It’s What I’m Thinking Pt 1."

Badly Drawn Boy had followed his acclaimed debut The Hour Of Bewilderbeast with the soundtrack to the film of Nick Hornby’s novel About A Boy. “Nick Hornby was quite reassuring about my concerns,” he recalls, “because when I was approached to do About A Boy I was aware it was more mainstream … I was worried about the film alienating what I was doing as a fan base, but he just said, ‘Don’t worry about that – if it’s successful it’s because it’s good.’"

Read the full interview with Badly Drawn Boy in Hot Press, out Thursday July 15.