Sammi: It’s been eight years since your last solo album, are you excited?

Mark: I’m feeling quite good at the moment, I’m feeling really positive. I’m really pleased with the record, I’m looking forward to people hearing it. I’ve had it my world for a while now, so I’m looking forward to some people having it in their world.

S: How does it compare and differ to your past albums – I know you’ve said it was more of a “project” than an album, but does it feel like it’s a natural progression in the change of sound from what you’ve done previously?

M: Finding the right sound for the record was a bit of a journey to be honest. Initially I went quite electronic with the whole sound of the record, which was great and I enjoyed that, but I just felt like I wanted to have a band around me to be a part of the sound as well, so we were just trying to get the right blend.

And then also taking into account as to where I am in my life now, and wanting it to feel authentic to where I left it.

So to get the right balance took a little bit of time. It was a bit of a journey but I’m really, really pleased with where we’ve ended up.

S: Has it been nice to be able to experiment on your own a little bit? After so many years since your last album, has it been nice to take the driving seat again?

M: Do you know what, I haven’t really thought that much about it. For the last few years I’ve been doing a record every couple of years – counting Take That. And I kind of walk this path where I just try and write songs. I don’t really know what else to do really so I try and write songs and carry on doing that kind of thing. In the nicest way, it’s like they kind of all went off on holiday. Like Gaz has gone and done the X Factor, Rob’s done his record, Jason’s gone over there and Howard’s gone that way and I feel like I have to walk the same path really in many ways, I’m hoping they’ll come back next year and get back in the car. But I’m kind of just driving the bus around you know, I need to go and pick them all up soon.

S: Tell me a little bit about the collaborations on the album, the Ren Harvieu and Jake Emlyn tracks – what was it like working with them because they’re quite unique artists aren’t they?

M: They’re really, really special artists. Ren has this stunning voice, and she’s got an aura about her as well. Incredible artist, I loved her record Through The Night which I heard for the first time about 18 months ago. Great record. To be honest she came to the studio for the day and it was probably one of the highlights of my career singing with her on the record cause she was just so natural. And do you know when you write a song and it just comes out 100 times better cause someone else sings it. She kinda did that. I liked it, but when she sang it I loved it. Which is really nice. She brought an amazing energy on the day, she only came in for a day but she brought amazing energy with her.

And then Jake, is just you know, he’s very powerful, a very powerful man. He came in and added, you know he obviously did all the rapping and added melody and stuff to the song.

S: Are you excited to be going out on tour by yourself again? What can fans expect from the show?

M: I don’t think about this show any differently than I think about a Take That show. Gotta give value for money, gotta give them songs they want to hear, you want to really engage. You know what’s a good word? Intimate. No, you want to engage your audience, and I want to see them and for them to come on the journey with us really. And I hope we can do that. And song wise I’m playing stuff off the new record, some of the old stuff as well and some Take That songs in there. So a mixed bag, and getting that to work well together.