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I think we all view ‘The Café’ as a great escape from life's pressures. The song was written in a few weeks in 2001, with the fourth verse being added just after the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. Since then the coffee culture has really exploded in Australia. My own tipple is a Flat White (hence my recently named album), but "cappuccino" is the universal metaphor for the cafe vibe.

While I was re-imagining this track, it was a tough journey trying to make it sound 'different' from the original due to the then simple guitars + voice, as well as 4 identical verses with no chorus. But it finally took on its own character when the whistling riff and accordion were added (which reminds me a little of 10CC's 'One Night in Paris'). For the start I imagined a melancholy busker being brightened by getting a few coins – perhaps for a coffee later.

The original music arrangement was one voice plus two guitars. The current version adds:

• a prologue
• accordion and whistling
• percussion
• bass and vocal harmonies
• two guitars, one picked, the other strummed
• final verse in the minor key
• tempo changes

I experienced a massive roadblock when starting recording/production. After mapping out the timeline with the tempos, things would regularly fall apart when recording - the pre-recorded downbeat would change on me when playing in the guitar part. There was a point of serious self-doubt about my playing and studio software skills. But I finally discovered the trip wire … one of the bars in every section was half the length of the other bars! E.g. “To get those grey cells circ-er-ling round” … instead of being three bars of 4 beats, it is actually 4-2-4. Quite unintentional when we wrote it, and natural to play/sing, but computers require explicit guidance or else you end up with a jumble.