Finding Findlay

History first. Recall your formative years in York.

"I was born in Fulford; my parents owned a pub in Allerthorpe, near Pocklington, and after a couple of years in York, and one in Pocklington, I ended up in Barmby Moor at the age of three; and that's where I grew up.

"My mum and dad had split up after I was born, and I never really met my father, and my mum got married again when I was 12, and we moved back to York when I was 13, near the racecourse at Millfield Road, but I stayed on at Woldgate School in Pocklington "I've just played a gig there supporting Fionn Regan, at Pocklington Arts Centre; I used to go there when it was a cinema, so it was a bit surreal playing."

Did you start playing music in your school days?

"I was quite a late-starter musically. I wasn't really in a band, but I used to go parties round York when I was 17/18, having a few spliffs, and there'd be guys rubbing shoulders with Chris Helme and the Sheds Shed Seven. I knew 'em but my sister was more of a mate with them, as she was older than me."

So when did the singing begin?

"I got into singing, doing Lennon and McCartney harmonies, not even knowing I could sing. People would say' Bloody hell, you've got a good voice', and a guy who's now the bass player with Luke Thom used to teach me a few chords.

"I messed around with trying to start a couple of bands, and I once did an open-mic night at the pub in High Petergate that was a bit of a gay joint.

"Literally three days before I'd learnt three chords, G C and D, for The Beatles' Rain, as it has just those three chords."

When did you move to London and why?

"About eight years ago I moved, just to go there. I was a bit depressed, fed up"

Why?

"I was bored. It wasn't York that was boring; it was just that there was a group of friends where things were getting dark with drugs and people were having breakdowns. My sister was living in Portobello Road and having such a good time, that me and my mate moved down there. Out of housing benefit we got a £300-a-week mews house, and within a few months I'd answered an advert to audition for a band called Drexel. They were like an electronic funk band and I sang with them for a year but I was just doing their songs; they had their thing down, and it was a bit too strict musically, but I learned how to be a professional musician."

What happened next?

"I formed the band Boedekka; they were a bit Sixties psych, Krautrock; a bit of early electronica in there. Can, Faust, I still love all that stuff.

"We got signed to Boy George's label, More Protein, and we released a mini-album, Happy Nightmares, got lots of press, but then it fell apart.

"There were too many egos and it was almost as if there was too much talent.

"I then had this idea of putting mandolins and banjos and ukuleles through old tape echoes. That project was going to be called Ghosts Of The Cosmos but that only lasted a couple of weeks."

What finally led to the singer-songwriter status and Separated By The Sea?

"I just started writing stuff and recording at home and sending it over to my girlfriend in Copenhagen. We'd gone through some hard times hence they were separated by the sea, with me drinking too much and not respecting her. So I sent her these songs to show that I cared, and it seemed to be what every girlfriend wanted to hear!

"Before I knew it, I had an album's worth of stuff, which I wasn't planning to do much with it, but then I did a couple of songs at an acoustic night at Shoreditch, and Simon Lord, of Simian and the Green Man Festival, heard them and invited me to his warehouse studio in Hackney Wick."

You subsequently signed to Peacefrog four months ago and your breakthrough came when your song Come Home was used for a MasterCard advert.

"It was running for about eight weeks around Christmas, and the lyric Come Home seemed to fit in with coming home for Christmas, and the feel of the track fitted with the film. It was a lucky break, and it's really helped with my profile."

Did your experiences on LSD influence such songs as Down Among The Dead men and Losing The Will To Survive?

"No, I didn't have any difficulties with LSD. Not at all. Quite the opposite. I was a bit of a lad and used to hang out with some pretty undesirable people, getting into fights, but then I got into a more artistic crowd and that's when I started taking LSD and without it I wouldn't have got into music and Hendrix. I would have done something pretty mundane, like joining the Army or being a joiner, though anyone doing a hard day's work gets my vote, but I knew I was destined for something more exotic and the LSD and Hendrix showed me there was another world.

"Those songs were from when I was drinking hard, not an alcoholic, but I realised I had to stop it, when my girlfriend went to Copenhagen."

The album was "inspired by and dedicated to Marie Nielsen". So did the songs work?

"Yeah, we're back on track and I've cleaned up my ways. I'm a lot more responsible. It's much better this way. I just want to be a good person, live a nice life and have a pleasant time."

• Findlay Brown's Separated By The Sea is released by Peacefrog this week.