When Ben Howard was announced as the winner of two Brit Awards in 2012, Twitter ran awash with cries of ‘WHO IS HE?’ Two years on and no-one asks that question anymore.

Recorded last winter, second album I Forget Where We Were wasted no time in taking the No 1 spot back in October 2014. It’s a darker, noisier and far more experimental collection than the summery fireside folk of Every Kingdom, a record that shakes off numerous type-casts - the Devonshire Jack Johnson, the Mumford-associated folkie, the teen heartthrob - none of which were accurate.

Ben’s (sometimes brutal) honesty has previously got him into hot water with a pop press used to red carpets and well-spun soundbites, and interviews are increasingly rare.

Nonetheless, he granted TG a sit down ahead of his Manchester Apollo show and talked in-depth about handling the spotlight, his rebellious streak and what happens when you wang a guitar amp through a piano...

Is I Forget Where We Were an anxious album?

"It’s definitely evolved into more of a band project, so there’s everyone else’s input into it, as well"

"In many ways. It’s a lot more introverted than the first record, and now I realise it was actually quite mulled-over and quite thought-about, sometimes to its detriment, I think. It was really picked apart but it could have been quite a live, instrumental album with a lot more fury, but I think we - at times - made it quite concise. But in terms of anxious? Yeah, maybe. It breathes in the music. It was a strange winter for all of us... a big season of change."

We know you don’t like talking about your personal life, but do you mean it was a strange time in terms of your personal lives, or literally just the changing of the seasons?

"Well, it’s always a mix of everything, but I think the seasons definitely had a huge impact on everyone’s mood. One thing to be aware of is that it’s definitely evolved into more of a band project, so there’s everyone else’s input into it, as well. I guess, vocally and lyrically, it’s all me, but there were times of real magic where I’d feed everyone with some unsettling things and we would jump on it and explore it, and we made some really interesting music out of it at times."

Do you think part of you was trying to rebel and sabotage your burgeoning pop star status with this record?

"I think there’s a streak of rebellion in me, definitely, but I think more so it was a feeling that we’d engaged with so many people that we felt they would come with us. That I could play some music to kids that maybe they wouldn’t listen to [normally], because we had something in common. At the time, it felt like evolution. The songs are longer, so have a bit of patience, you know? If anything, it’s a slight rebellion, in a tiny way, to get people to sit down and listen to a whole record."