LLOYD Cole flies in from Massachusetts today, arriving in Britain tomorrow morning to play the Galtres Parklands Festival at Duncombe Park on Saturday.

That gap affords the ex-pat Derbyshire singer and songwriter the chance to indulge in his favourite pastime. “I’ll be playing some golf at Ganton while I’m here; it’s my favourite course in Britain,” says Lloyd, who devotes a section of his website to the sport.

He likes to do things his own way, no commotion for the Commotions leader turned solo artist.

“I was offered the chance to stay in a plush hotel, but I prefer to stay in a pub just around the corner from the golf course,” he says.

Lloyd will be performing solo at Galtres, just as he did at Pocklington Arts Centre in March 2012 and at Fibbers in York at York Live Music in May 2000.

“I’m solo for the foreseeable future on the road,” he says, although his new album, Standards, features guest musicians. “It wasn’t made by a band, but by me and various musicians and at some points there were more than three musicians together, so it does have the hint of a possibility of a band.”

Lloyd reckons that if he asked promoters about touring with a band, the answer would be “No”, but the response to Standards, an album that has attracted his best reviews in years, might change their thinking.

“This album has momentum, so maybe there are possibilities of a band, which excites me on the one hand, but on the other, fills me with dread, as I’d be everyone’s dad on tour.”

In fact he has toured as a band – an acoustic three piece – after releasing Broken Record, his 2010 country-folk album, but he has a heavier band in mind next time.

“If I do the same thing for too long, I’m in danger of going on autopilot, so I have to feed that need for change, but I also have to feed my children, so I have to keep alternating things,” says 52-year-old Lloyd.

“Right now, I’m having to go out and make some money, having spent it making the album.”

Prompted by Bob Dylan still kicking up a storm at 71, Lloyd cast aside any inhibitions about still embracing rock in his fifties. The electricity has been switched back on for Standards.

“This album is basically what I do with electric instruments as opposed to what I do with acoustic musicians, and there were a few pieces that as I wrote them, I knew they needed more power,” he says.

Lloyd duly called up drummer Fred Maher and bassist Matthew Sweet, the rhythm section on his 1990 self-titled solo debut, to work with guitarist Mark Schwarber. “When they get together, it just has a little more bite than when I get together with other musicians,” he says.

Lloyd has been making records since The Commotions’ 1984 debut, Rattlesnakes. “I think I’m still recognised as a distinctive songwriter and that’s one of the reasons I feel reasonably comfortable when making a record, because I found a voice that was my own,” he says.

“But growing up in the 1970s, I initially felt that I had to follow the David Bowie model of recreating yourself with each album. I thought that was what you were supposed to do, as opposed to Van Morrison making a Van Morrison album each time.

“By the third Commotions album [1987’s Mainstream], I was trying not to be Lloyd Cole, which was pretty stupid. David Bowie wouldn’t have done that. I was making something that was very stilted and it’s not good when that happens.”

Lloyd split up The Commotions, moved to New York, then Massachusetts. “Over the years, I’ve come to realise I can make music based on my gut instinct,” he says.

• Lloyd Cole plays Galtres Parklands Festival, Duncombe Park, Helmsley, on Saturday, 8.45pm to 9.45pm. The festival runs from tomorrow until Sunday; for more details, visit galtresfestival.org.uk