ROCK frontman Danny McNamara has told how he's living in the shadow of a heart condition.

The 33-year-old singer with Embrace, who comes from Brighouse, has been taking beta-blockers for years.

And he may face surgery later in life.

Danny's minor condition was diagnosed 13 years ago and he needs the medication to help curb his stress levels.

"I was about 20 when I found out," he said. "I thought I was having some kind of panic attack but my heart was going mental.

"In the kind of job that I'm in, with lots of nerves and stress, it's not that easy really.

"The pills that I take work fine at the moment but I might need to think about having an operation later on in life."

Danny said he wasn't particularly bothered about the condition until he found out that his friend's mother, who is in her 50s, was taking beta- blockers that were 12 times weaker than the tablets he had been prescribed.

He decided there and then to see a hypnotist.

"It was out of desperation really - I didn't have anywhere else to turn," he said. "He took me back to a time in my childhood when I was three and I used to be scared of the dark. And he got me, a 30-year-old man, to sit the child version of myself on my knee and make shadow puppets to show the child that the light and dark could be controlled, like my heart condition.

"It really helped me and that's what Wish 'Em All Away is about."

The song is the fifth track on the new album, Out Of Nothing, which is due to be released on September 13.

When his brother Richard, 31, who plays guitar for the band, gets worried about Danny's heart condition, they focus on what's really important to them both - the music.

"Richard and I don't lie to each other - if one of us is unhappy we'll say and it makes for better songs," he said.

"We write apart and then we get together and decide how the song is going to work - he's my favourite person in the whole world is Richard."

According to Danny, who's been single for the past two years, it's a good thing the bond between them is so strong because the pair have had to sit down together nearly every day for the past three years to write songs for the album.