Guy Garvey speaks candidly about tackling his demons

It's fair to say Guy Garvey has lived a colourful life thus far.

The Elbow frontman, 41, has admitted he would guzzle down bottles of booze prior to his songwriting sessions because he believed, at the time, that his blurred mentality allowed him to pen tracks more easily. He explained to The Guardian's Weekend magazine: "I'm ashamed to say I could polish off a bottle without a problem. I could have this conversation after a bottle of scotch." "I used to think booze helped me write. It doesn't at all. I used to convince myself it was a necessary part, but that's b******s." However, the singer - who released his debut solo album recently - has now realised that some of the best work he has created has been while sober. He added: "The drinking was all part of the garret, the romance of the swinging lightbulb, the dedicating my life to unpaid art idea. Tortured in my 20s - all part of that."