'Broom Cupboard' started off as a bit of a throw away track for me. Most of the songs on 'Esque' I'd meticulously planned from top to bottom, but with this one I remember feeling out the melody/lyrics and structure fairly absent-mindedly over the course of a few hours, making a conscious effort to relinquish control of the track whilst writing (not sure if 'conscious' constitutes relinquishing control) and just follow the mood. I definitely felt the album needed something light and floaty to offset all the gloom.

Since then the track's taken on loads of different incarnations. There's a version of it somewhere that sounds a bit Nirvana Unplugged, and another one that's all synths. I guess it took a while to find the right instrumentation to fit the song.

Lyrically I guess I was still toying with some pretty bleak themes - singing about some kind of insurmountable/thankless pursuit - hence the "40-something failure" talk.. It's more tongue in cheek than anything too solemn though..

I was just picturing myself in the exact same place as 40 year old cackling away maniacally, with my Mum looking on in horror.