“There will be four singers on stage at the same time and we’ll each do a song in turn. The idea is that we’ll share stories behind a certain song and join in with each other every now and again, maybe throw in the occasional cover. Basically just have fun and it’ll be a relaxed, intimate affair.”

Your Birmingham show at the Mill will be seated. Does that type of audience suit your material?

“It seems better for what I do. There are a lot of quiet moments. It’ll work for this because it’s more a storytelling thing.”

There must be a lot of camaraderie between the four of you.

“I hope so. I’ve known Gemma for a long time, twenty years or so. Richard has toured with me, Laura I haven’t met yet but I assume we’ll all get on. We’ll be sharing the same van around the country. It’s tough for solo singer-songwriters to tour, it’s a costly thing so this is a nice way of getting our songs out and helping each other.”

Your album The Years In Between, you said recently that you thought it was a bit rushed. Do you still think that?

“It’s a tough one. I quite like the way Bob Dylan has always talked about records as ‘That’s the moment I was at, and now I’m at a different moment’. If I look that way it’s not rushed, it’s where I was at but you can look at it that I had just come off a big tour with Ed Sheeran, playing to sixty thousand a night so I wanted to get something out quick while those people still remembered me. In that way maybe it was a bit rushed, I’m not saying it was a bad record, there’s always things you might do a little differently. It’s the way you are at that point, the way a song eventually goes might be slightly different to how you wrote it and that’s what goes out to the world.”

You mentioned that playing with Ed was a big tour. For those of us on the outside, playing all those stadiums with such a huge name sounds very glamorous, but what’s the reality of doing a tour that size? Do you just get told to turn up on time, play, then you’re pushed away to the sidelines?

“I watched Ed a lot. He’s such an interesting performer so if we had the chance I would always stay and watch. I got to say hello, the World Cup was on and he was big into that so I watched a few games with him. But he’s a busy man, he has to put the hours in but he’s always been very friendly and welcoming.”

How did your songs go with his audience?

“It went okay. It was certainly a big difference from doing my shows to doing one of his. Playing to sixty thousand is obviously a much bigger thing. There was a lot more energy. It’s hard to connect with an audience of that size so you go out and do your thing. You can’t do anything else, just go out and hope you can connect. Talking is a very useful tool, just saying hello to people, interacting with the audience. I didn’t have much time, maybe half an hour and I tried to squeeze in as many songs as I could but it was a fun thing to do.”

There have been a few surprises in your career. Like when you appeared in Neighbours, for example.

“I’ve no idea how that came about. It was a bit of a promo thing, I think Ed had done Home & Away so the Australian record label had me do something similar.”

You have a couple of months until the tour starts. what will you be doing in the meantime?

“Writing a new album. I’m in writing mode, getting demos together and trying to find a way of doing it. That and my boy. He was two earlier this month and I’m looking after him.

Good luck with that. It must be challenging to balance family life with a career as a musician at the best of times, without the uncertainty of the past two years.

“The past couple of years, not being able to go on tour or do any kind of in-person writing sessions has definitely brought home what I do and what I need to do on a day to day basis. Before Christmas I was touring with Deacon Blue then the second day in I tested positive and had to go home to isolate. There were thirty shows on the tour and I missed fourteen due to isolating or dates being pulled. It’s definitely an unusual time and you still don’t know what’s around the corner.”

I would guess that there’s a lot of pandemic novels and apocalyptic songs being written.

“Possibly, yes, or in my case a lot of sleep depravation, as well as all the other things.”

It’s rare we can say this, but going on tour must give you the opportunity to get some rest and an uninterrupted night’s sleep.

“A night to yourself in a hotel where I won’t be up at four am like I was this morning. It’s all good.”