MTV: When will you be on the road again here?

Gray: We start in April. It's a pretty big tour, about seven weeks of dates. We'll be coming through New York — Radio City Music Hall, a couple of nights there. The only other date I can remember is the L.A. Universal Amphitheatre. So they're going to be big shows. I'm really excited about it. It'll be brilliant.

MTV: You've gotten a lot of reaction about how "Babylon" has hit people in a soft spot. It's got to be a strange place to be in.

Gray: Well, that's brilliant. That's one of the nicest things about it. Once the music's done and out, it's somebody else's — everyone makes it up for themselves. I love the fact that people get so much enjoyment out of it.

MTV: "Please Forgive Me" looks like the next single. What was the inspiration for that track?

Gray: That was one where I got the chords messing around on my keyboard and I thought, "Oh, I got something here." I wrote the first line, and the whole song just sort of tumbled down in half an hour. I do love it when that happens; it doesn't happen very often. It seems like a very simple song — not so much about falling in love for the first time, but re-falling in love. It's a love song tempered by experience, but almost more passionate for the rediscovery.

It's rubbish talking about songs, because you make it sound less than actually just listening to the song. That is why I make music. The stuff that I don't understand — the magic that's in it — that's what I'm after.