Robbie Williams has been through a lot over the past couple of years. The cheeky one from the now-defunct Take That was the first to leave - or, depending on your point of view, be booted out of - the boygroup back in July 1994.
And he's been on one heck of a roller-coaster ride ever since: the 23-year-old singer has had a bout with alcoholism, he's had a run-in with a few managers, he's even had a few court battles.
So it's not surprising that charting a new career direction has been a bit of a slow process.
Nine months after he left Take that, Williams released a cover of George Michael's Freedom as a single. after that, silence for almost a year. Then finally, in April, came Old Before I Die, a single with a new look and a guitar-based rocky Brit-pop sound marking a slight change of direction from the old Take That days.
'I suppose I am Brit-pop,' Williams says of his current brand of music during a phone interview recently. 'It's guitar music and it's very rocky. But I do pop music and this is pop music with a guitar.'
But with a reputation for being somewhat more rock influenced than other ex-Take That members, doesn't his new music come off as lighter than expected?
'I've just come out of a band that was very throw-away pop. So I can't really expect anybody to accept the fact that I can go too far left field straightaway. People wouldn't take it seriously,' Williams explains.
However, a heavier sound in the future is certainly not out of the question: 'It's always an option that I can do something heavier.'
Williams does point out that he'd spent a lot of time worrying about what everybody thought of him and his material.
'I've come to an agreement with myself that I can only do my best and that's what I'm doing. I'm very proud of what I've done,' he says.
'The next album might be a bit harder, it might not, but I'd love to be emotive as Radiohead or as rocky as Oasis.'
Those British influences, along with his well-known liking for Pulp, are fairly predictable; what is somewhat surprising is his interest in hip-hop: 'I'm also influenced by people like (American hip-hop artists) Biggie Small, Snoop Doggy Dog, Dr dre, Tupac (Shakur),' he says.
Perhaps the controversy those hip-hoppers routinely generate has rubbed off on this British lad - check out this line from Old Before I Die: ' hope I live to see the day the pope gets high....'
So why hasn't he been ex-communicated or burnt at the sake or something yet?
Williams has a diplomatic response.
'I'm basically an inoffensive lad. I think people take the irony that I do as tongue-in-cheek, which is how it's meant to be.'
'I think if Oasis had sung the same line then it might have caused an uproar. But it hasn't bothered anybody and it was never meant to. I like the Pope, he's quite a decent man.'
Williams' current single, Lazy Days, has more of that tongue-in-cheek approach, at least 'to a certain degree,' he says.
'Lazy Days is actually quite a serious song about searching for...a jolly good time! The words are just meant to be ironic. It's quite cringe-worthy.'
'Somebody had said to me, 'When Lazy Days came out, I actually cringed when I heard the words a jolly good time'', says Williams with a grin in his voice you could practically hear over the phone line.
'But there's a lot of stuff in the song about having been through a bad time and striking a balance between finding everything serious and not finding anything serious.'
As for the album, why the long break between the single Freedom released in July last year and the following releases and the recording of the album?
With a typically quick comeback, he says, 'I don't know, it's probably because I've been off me head...'
Seriously, though, he goes on to explain, 'when Freedom was released, that was not my first single, really. That was just me going 'I'm still here.''
'And the I had to write the album, which I did at the beginning of this year. It's just taken a while.'
That could be because it is a very personal album, Williams says.
'It's all stuff to do with my own life. I can't write about anybody else's experiences apart from my own and everything on the album is about things that I've gone through or things that I've noticed.'
That explains the working title and the track that goes with it, Life Thru A Lens.
'From a very early age (16 when he joined Take That) my whole personal life has been conducted in front of the press and it's a very difficult roller-coaster ride to get off,' Williams says, adding that 'the front cover (of the album) shows a load of photographers around me.'
So how much has Williams changed since those difficult Take That days?
'It's a question I ask myself every day. I don't know really. When I was in Take That, the world was an open book and it was there for me to write in, or draw on.'
'It still is, but I think that a lot of your nativity is taken away which is a sad thing. I think that I'm not as naive as I used to be.'
With his latest album almost ready for release (tentatively next month or early October), Williams is preparing for performances.
'I've got a tour in Europe in October. Hopefully I can go to Asia at the beginning of next year.'
And he's certainly not lacking in song material for his concerts. In addition to the 11 tracks from the album, Williams can also rely on not fewer than 10 b-sides from his singles to bolster his set. None of them appears on the album itself. In fact, even the single Freedom itself doesn't appear on the album.
'It's really hard work doing the B-sides because this is a marketing thing that the record company's got,' Williams explains.
'I'm finding it quite difficult to keep producing that with the little time I've got. That's why there're loads of re-mixes in the next song.'
Apart from touring this part of the world, does Williams have plans to dip a toe into US waters? Well, unlike former Take That member Gary Barlow, breaking into the Us market is not on his agenda for world-wide success at the moment.
'It's not something that concerns me. I'm not the sort who go out and flog themselves to death in a place like the United States because you have to go round and work, and work and play in toilets and stuff.'
'I've no great burning desire to go out and tame the Americans,' he says.
What other plans does he have? Good works for social cause perhaps? Typically, he replies with tongue firmly in cheek: 'I'm going over to Madagascar next year to single-handedly save the rainforrest. If you thing Sting (British singer/songwriter known for his environmental work) does a good job, well, watch out Sting, Robbie Williams is here to take over your mantle as a world-saver.'
Seriously again, Williams did point out that perhaps children's charities would be more up his street and that could well be on his agenda as his career gets more stable and if he can find the time.
As for his free time, what does he do, other than still supporting his favourite football team, up-and-coming First Division team Port Vale?
'You know what, I don't know. Not a lot at the minute. I haven't really got any spare time,' he says.
'If I did have a lot of spare time, I'd have to sit and think about myself and experimenting feelings is hard work.'
Lazy days is rather appropriate a title, isn't it? And if that song and this interview are anything to go by, Robbie Williams really hasn't changed one bit.
Typed up by me, Kristine and provided by Ang, thanx.