When it comes to reunions, let's just say I'm not the one who says no.

I wasn't a part of that lineup of Genesis, so I don't like to comment on it too much. The one thing I do find interesting is how they can keep a straight face when they say in interviews how "Invisible Touch" and "I Can't Dance" are just as good as "Watcher of the Skies" and "Firth of Fifth".

Phil [Phil Collins] and I always had a special bond of sorts. We were the two "outsiders" in the band, the ones who didn't go to school with the others. The day I decided to quit Genesis, we were in the middle of mixing our latest album. We were on a break and I saw Phil. He hailed a taxi to go back to the studio and asked me if I was joining him. I told him I was going to talk to him later. He gave me a puzzled look and took off. I knew if I got in that taxi, he'd be the one person to talk me out of leaving.

I put a listing in Melody Marker, which was the big publication for putting bands together in England back in the 60s. I was looking for a band open to trying new things out, pushing the boundaries of what currently was considered rock music at the time. I got a phone call from Peter (Gabriel), who asked me if I had ever heard of Genesis before. I said no. He told me to listen to Trespass and then come listen to them rehearse. I did that and I liked what I heard, but realized I could add something to this band to take it to another level. We started jamming and improvising and immediately clicked. They invited me to join and I accepted. I was so excited at the time because I knew we were bringing something brand new to rock music and I liked being a part of it because I thought it was desperately needed at the time.

Peter [Peter Gabriel] started like a regular frontman, but after one concert when he came out in a dress wearing a fox's head, the crowd went wild. The costumes got more gaudy and the attention went more and more to him. The music almost became an afterthought. The four of us got a bit peeved that our contributions weren't being acknowledged. Though we didn't want him to leave the band, we saw it as a chance to bring the focus back to the music.

I had no plans of leaving the band, but at the same time I was looking at other avenues to expand my creativity without growing stagnant or getting burned out. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of doing a solo album, being in complete control of what was on it. After doing it, it was tough to go back to the band format. I increasingly yearned for more than what the format allowed and I knew that eventually the itch was going to be too much to ignore.

Marillion has a really interesting new album at the moment ["Sounds That Can't Be Made"], and the playing is very clever rhythmically, especially the first track ["Gaza"]. I think he's [Ian Mosley] become a more economical player within the context of that band. But he's done some seriously fast licks. There's a track we did together on "Highly Strung" called "Always Somewhere Else." The drums are in a fast 7/8 and every bit the equal to Phil Collins' economy on that one.

[on Ian Mosley] Ian is a phenomenal drummer; phenomenally fast.

[about Genesis] There was nothing we wouldn't touch, no prejudice against any style of music. When punk swept in, it was prejudice incarnate, ignorance hailed as virtue. It was fun for five minutes and The Sex Pistols were very entertaining, but, if you say "yah boo sucks" to everything, you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Prog covers a multitude of areas, everything from jazz to classical to comedy. We were happy to embrace big band sounds, opera, pantomime. And, all these years later, that's still going down a storm with audiences.

When I was with Genesis, I'll never forget being on tour in America in 1973 when we were trying to make it there and hearing John Lennon say on WNEW New York radio that he "loved" our album "Selling England By The Pound". Even if I never ever sell another album in my life--I will always remember that. It doesn't get much better than that--a tribute from Lennon, that the great man himself listened to our records. It gave us a heck of a buzz and real encouragement.

It's Chopin (Frédéric Chopin) I think of when the piano is used at its best - underplayed, gentle and melancholic.

[on "The Fountain Suite" from his album "Tribute", dedicated to Andrés Segovia] What can be said about 'Andrés Segovia that hasn't been said already? Let's just say on the nylon guitar his playing informs my every note! I wrote this as a tribute to his eternal influence.

As a young kid growing up in the 1950s I found that one of the first things I liked listening to on the radio was the sound of Mario Lanza; little did I understand then that this was the sound of opera and of the musical influence it would have on me.

I remember watching a television performance of one of [Johann Sebastian Bach's] pieces back in the [1960s]. The piece being played moved slowly and leisurely through its chord changes which I remember were being played in such a gentle and sublime manner. It was at that early stage in my musical development that I realized there was a lot more to chords than one expected and that the minutia, the detail in music is incredibly important.

I still have a deep passionate love of chords and their progressions, and I find that the likes of Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach) and Mario Lanza remain influential in my thoughts when working on compositions.

I tend to play a lot on nylon guitar these days as well as electric guitar, but I think my current choice of favourite guitar sound would be one comprising a repeat echo, with reverb and distortion on the feedback. This I feel makes the sound a little more reminiscent of a violin and is a sound I enjoy listening to and working with. The guitar can be played in a manner that emulates many different instruments of course and is one of the reasons I enjoy playing it so much.

I would say if you are serious about composing structurally and creating interesting sounds with instruments, perhaps one should listen in detail to certain classical music. The minutia of a piece is critically important, especially in classical composition and so taking steps to understand the detail in a piece will help significantly.

[about Genesis in the years after he left the band] In the positive sense, they were more streamlined and you could say they were very smart in jettisoning what was known as the prog style, in favor of something much shorter and more media-friendly. I do think they threw the baby out with the bathwater, though. They did a 360-degree turnaround and managed to lose a fanbase. This is where Pink Floyd have scored. They can reform whenever they want--with or without the full complement of players. You either like those slow, ponderous, introverted, atmospheric songs or you don't. They're not a band in support of a frontman.

[on why he left Genesis] I was getting tired of bringing ideas into the group which I felt they weren't going to do. I felt that the band was heading towards an area that was becoming very safe.

I have always believed that one half of me was born to be an acoustic guitar player, the other half to play rock guitar and to do both with equal passion.

I know that Genesis inspired a lot of young musicians because people still write to me and say that was the reason why they got into playing. I just count myself fortunate that I've been part of the soundtrack to someone's youth.