This week, NEWTON FAULKNER released his fourth album Studio Zoo. He tells ANDY HOWELLS why he feels the album could be his best to date

"Only 3 months ago I couldn’t conceive of doing an album in the next 3 months,” says Newton Faulkner, “Now it’s finished!”

I’m chatting to Newton on the completion of his fourth album, the stripped back raw and live sounding Studio Zoo, the follow-up to last years Write It On Your OwnSkin and an album that took literally days to record.

“This is the fastest I’ve ever worked in my life,” he says. “I knew there was an albumcoming up, I didn’t know when. I was touring, going to Australia, then back for four days, then to Europe and then Japan and when I came back I thought that’s when I’ll have to start writing properly.”

“The day before I left for Australia, I was told that by the time I got back from Japan I had to have the whole album. I was like ‘do you realise I literally have four days off to do this?’ And it was written in four days.”

Studio Zoo is a personal best for the Reigate, Surrey born songwriter who rose to fame in 2007 with his platinumselling album Hand Built by Robots.

Two albums have followed but this album appears to capture Faulkner at his most authentic.

“It was definitely the right thing to do,” he says.

“Sometimes if you spend too long doing anything you can just over-think things because of the timeframe. I’m so much happier with it than anything else.

“It’s verymuchme. It’s what I do.Mybrother and I have written together a lot on other albumsbut we’ve never been left to ourown devices to dowhatwedo.

“Somehoweverything lined up and when the A and R department would usually step in and get heavily involved they were on holiday, which was the best thing that can happen to the record because it can be just what it is. It didn’t get tweaked it didn’t get messed with, it was allowed to be what it is which has never really happened before.”

The albumis made up of a variety of styles from acoustic brilliance in TreadingWater to the thought provoking psychedelia of In My Head. Melody and rhythm still rule supreme.

“There’s some stuff I’m really proud of,” he tells me. “Treading Water is the most advanced, guitar wise I’ve ever done.”

Newton intends to tour the UKwith Studio Zoo early in 2014. “Festivals and gigs are the one thing that’s driven my whole career outside of radio which was effective on the first album, but everything changed after that when Radio 1 went younger.”

Even though he hasn’t reached 30 yet Newton’s appeal seems to have reached older generations, something that slightly bemuses him: “Someone said something to me the other day which terrified me greatly. She said she grewup listening to me. I was like! ‘You cannot have grown up listening to me because I haven’t grown up yet."