"He's the only person apart from me and me dad that uses two teabags in a cup," said Pitsmoor-born Hawley.

"Tea should be so strong you should be able to stand up in it," he added with a wink

They were at Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield, where Hawley has made each of his six solo albums, as well as co-producing an album with Amarillo singer Tony Christie – last year's themed cover album Made In Sheffield.

"It's the little things like that that move me, little serendipitous things that happen that let you know what you're doing is right," says Hawley.

"You could say I'm a sentimental old git."

Actually, that's not quite what he said.

If using expletives was an event in the 2012 Olympics, the UK would have a gold in the bag, as Hawley's talent for using swearwords knows no bounds.

With a love of such fortuitous coincidences, it's no wonder the 42-year-old former Pulp guitarist was so happy during the recording of his latest album, the wonderful Truelove's Gutter.

Like his previous three albums – Lowedges, Coles Corner and Lady's Bridge – it took its name from a Sheffield location.

"There's the old saying, 'You go out looking for shoes but come back with a hat' and it was a bit like that," he begins. "Things just happened out of nowhere, but they just seemed to be right."

Unlike his other albums, which have largely featured the standard line-up of guitars, bass, drums and lush orchestral arrangements, Truelove's Gutter saw Hawley stepping away from the string section as his stock-in-trade accompaniment.

Instead, the album boasts an array of weird and wonderful ambient instruments.

"I wanted to use a musical saw, because my grandad used to play that," he says. "I really wanted to use it on Don't Get Hung Up In Your Soul. I found this guy called David Coulter who plays the saw, so I got in touch and he came up to Sheffield.

"Colin Elliot who co-produces all my stuff and plays bass, said he used to go to school with a guy called David Coulter, but didn't think it would be the same bloke. The David Coulter we had coming to play the saw had worked with Tom Waits, Marianne Faithfull and all these amazing bands.