ANDY Burrows is musing over how much he really just loves a drink, particularly a pint in a pub. We're sitting in a slightly musty, dark, wood-panelled boozer in London, and he's loving it.
"I love a pint in a pub," he sighs, cradling a glass of something amber. The former Razorlight drummer is reminiscing about his days in the band in the mid-noughties, and how he's glad to have had that time in his life because it was wonderfully "textbook rock and roll", fuelled with plenty of drink and experiences that he now can't quite remember.
But he does recall one time that he did quit the sauce. For a short while, anyway.
"When I left the band I stopped drinking for like, four months, but that's the only time I've ever done it," he says. "I don't get paralytic, I just like the fuzzy feeling. On the whole my relationship with it is quite good. My only thing that I get annoyed about with drinking is that if I'm really anxious, I'll go to it."
Burrows is open about both his fondness for drink and his experiences with mental health issues, both of which conspired to kick start his latest project – a collaborative album with author Matt Haig.
The pair have channelled their complementary talents into an album loosely based on Haig's best-selling 2015 memoir about his battle with depression, Reasons To Stay Alive.
"I'd started reading Reasons To Stay Alive and I found Matt quite fascinating on Twitter," Burrows explains of their thoroughly modern meeting. "He's quite annoying but also really brilliant and quite feisty, not scared about getting into a bit of a spat.
"So one night when I was touring with Tom Odell, after a show, I was a bit tiddly and I plucked up the courage to send Matt a message – I noticed that he followed me.
"I sent a message saying, 'would you be up for meeting me and, I don't know if you know my music or like it, but I wondered if you wanted to work together?'"
The duo met and bonded over their love of music and other things, and initially discussed doing something for children, as Haig has written children's books and Burrows composed the music for The Snowman And The Snowdog in 2012.
But it wasn't quite the right fit, and they swiftly settled on creating some "straight up pop songs" together, with lyrics by Haig and music by Burrows.
Haig had never written songs before, which he reveals via email as he's unable to make the pub rendezvous.
"I'd written some poems but songs and poems aren't the same thing. But I find myself getting more inspired when I do new things," he says. "That's why I have written so many different types of books – kids' books, adult books, fiction, non-fiction. It's all writing. It's all expression.
"It's easy to overthink the differences between art forms but it's all just articulating an emotion. The emotion is the important thing."
The novelist and journalist adds that "working with Andy was a breeze" as they are on the "same page", a sentiment matched by his collaborator.
"We've got quite similar neurotic, anxious, slightly depressive tendencies, and a real hankering and love for pop music," Burrows notes.
Haig would write lyrics and send them to Burrows, who brought them to life with new compositions.
Burrows jokes he's the Elton John to Haig's Bernie Taupin.
On title track Reasons To Stay Alive, Burrows knew immediately that he "wanted it to be quite widescreen, quite epic", but on others, he had to work on them a little bit to get the sound he wanted.
Other tracks on the melodic, pop rock-esque album include the Radio 2 A-listed song Barcelona – penned by Haig from the point of view of someone having a panic attack but that Burrows made sound "up and happy" – and How To Stop Time, named after another of Haig's books.
The collaboration is the latest in a long line of projects for busy Burrows, who has been the drummer for Razorlight and We Are Scientists, and has also worked with Editors' frontman Tom Smith and singer-songwriter Odell.
He's also written the music for a new Ricky Gervais Netflix series and, perhaps most famously, the Bafta-nominated soundtrack to Channel 4's sequel to beloved festive cartoon The Snowman.
"After I left Razorlight, I made it my mission to make sure I did as much stuff as possible," he says.
Burrows left the indie rock band, known for hits including America and Wire To Wire, in 2009 after five years.
"I think it was very necessary to leave, because it was a very unhealthy band to be in," he discloses, adding that, while he gained a lot of confidence from being in the band at first, it became "very toxic".
Burrows's relationship with Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell was known to be fraught back in their hey-day. But for now, at least, he's nailed a working partnership that is genuinely a bit of a dream, and as easy and satisfying as they come.
"It's a very open album, and it's about not letting depression debilitate you completely, and knowing that you can get through," Burrows says.
He adds: "I found it immensely elating and I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
:: Reasons To Stay Alive by Andy Burrows and Matt Haig is available now.
