MTV: If you hadn't told anyone White Ladder was recorded in your house, no one would know. That's amazing. Were there things that got in the way at home?

Gray: The cat was responsible for breaking two different pieces of equipment, which was massively annoying at the time, because we didn't have that much money. She climbed up on this keyboard that was precariously balanced on top of another keyboard, and we heard this almighty crash. She's a mad cat as well; she wasn't brought up properly. She's one of these cats that, if you start doing something, she immediately gets in your way. So she figured heavily in some of the recording. I think you can hear her on one of the tracks. And the neighbors got a little pissed off if we went on beyond a certain time. You get a bit of banging on the wall. But generally, it was all pretty easy.

Well, it wasn't easy in a technical, making-a-record way — that was actually a nightmare. We used someone's photography studio to record some drums in at one point, because it would have been too much of a bad vibe with the neighbors. The photographer had gone away and said we could use it, but the assistant — without telling the photographer — had booked his own sessions. We were trying to record drums and he was trying to do a shoot. We got so sick of waiting for them that we just did the take anyway. So we were recording drums and you can hear the photographer clicking away on the other side. We had to snip out bits where the phone would ring. It was a ridiculously haphazard recording process, fraught with technical problems, but it was quite nice to be making a record in that anarchical way. I enjoyed it, anyway. [RealVideo]

MTV: You wouldn't change the process?

Gray: I wouldn't go into a studio, I don't think, to make the next record. But we've made our own place, a really small studio. We've got a little live room, a little kitchen. The nice thing about making a record in your own space is, no one else comes and tampers with it, so the history of it keeps unfolding. There will be bits of tape stuck here with little notes on them, the desk has all kinds of writing on it, there's a cup of coffee over there, a bag of crisps here. The whole process takes over; it becomes somewhat of an organism. I like that general detritus, and the history of it.

When you're in the studio, you'll always have someone come in and tidy up after you. It's definitely their place and you're using it, and anyone can pop their head around the door and ask, "How's it going?" I don't like that. We like the privacy of just recording away. But I don't think I would do it at home again. It's nice to have some distance between your home life and your album. It was a bit stressful at times. [laughs]

MTV: Are you the type that constantly plays with ideas?

Gray: The last year or so has been so different from the rest of my career. When I put a record out before, I worked it for at least a month before it went off the radio and no one was interested in it. Then it was back to the drawing board to make another one. But I've been working this album for years. There's been so much promo and so many interviews. There's always things to do, from the moment I get up. On show days, there's soundcheck, and there's no room for creative thinking. I've found that my creative process has about stopped. But when I stop for a week or so, it starts again straight away.