It just felt right to do it now. It's taken me this long due to commitments with The Bee Gees, doing live shows, and writing stuff for other people. But, it just felt like the right time to focus on solo material.

I didn't really analyse exactly what tracks I was going to put on the album until quite recently. I chose to work with two young black producers, Deacon Smith, who had been working with Mary J Blige in Los Angeles and Michael Jackson, and Michael Greaves. They were able to add some really great, contemporary sounds and R&B inflections to the album, which motivated me to be clear about the direction I wanted to go in.

Well, I think it fits into it very well, because again it is very soulful, R&B-based and black-influenced. The Bee Gees were always heavily influenced by black music. As a songwriter it's never been difficult to pick up on the changing styles of music out there, and soul has always been my favourite genre.

Well, I'd never try to be that distinctive from the Bee Gees' sound. I'm very proud of being a Bee Gee and am always aware that I'll be identified as a Bee Gee. All my solo projects have been 'along with' Bee Gee commitments, rather than 'instead of'. It's not a separate identity I'd be looking for really, but more a vessel for my own individual creativity.

Not at all actually, although I was with him a few weeks ago. He's been a very close friend for many years, as well as a creative colleague and it certainly wouldn't be out of the question that I'd work with again in the future. Other than Deacon and Michael recently, I haven't really met anyone else who has influenced me, but you never know, it could happen next year or next month. I just like to go with the spur of the moment.

Well, thank you and yes, I'm really happy that I got to work with such fresh talent. In a day when record companies are not particularly good at encouraging young, talented songwriters to come forward and get exposure, I think it's important to give tomorrow's songwriters the opportunity.

I think it's popular because it's ground-breaking and I think it's always been a genre that takes more chances or risks musically. I would say that what I call the 'white music scene' was far more ground-breaking three decades ago, which is why everyone's looking to the urban scene for inspiration now.

I think it's helped me tremendously. Living in Australia, which was very heavily influenced by the American music scene, we got our first real taste of what was happening across the Atlantic. Having lived in England as well, we hadn't been confined to one culture of music and that was invaluable as a developing songwriter.

Definitely. From very young, we weren't afraid to take chances and experiment with different kinds of music. In those days we liked the idea of pushing things as far as possible, so we didn't get stuck in one genre.

Musically, I would say The Beatles, Otis Reading and the whole Motown scene really. There aren't so many contemporary people that would influence me, as there are just far too many cover version artists. That's why I thought it important to work with new songwriters on the album.

Thank you. Ah, well there's just so many for me. Obviously there's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer. I think writing for Barbara Streisand and 'Woman In Love', 'Guilty' and 'Chain Reaction' for Diana Ross or 'Heartbreaker' for Dione Warwick are times I can be really proud of. I've always had personal favourites of our own songs too, like 'How Deep Is Your Love', 'Too much Heaven' and 'Tragedy'. For me they all represent different periods in my career and have different meanings.