Before

I should mention at this point that I've been to Portland before. I think. This was before I got into music in a big way and I'd never heard of Portland.

I worked at a summer camp in Connecticut over the summer of... '97 was it?... Anyway, I worked there for two months – as a steward in the kitchen – and then went travelling around America. I had visited New York for a couple of days, relaxed on the coast in Avalon for a few days and then had a mammoth, seven-day journey right across the country from Worcester, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington. After spending a few days in Seattle I got the overnight Green Tortoise bus to San Francisco.

It was an amazing bus trip; probably the best bit of the three months I was in America. The bus didn't have a toilet on board and stopped every 45 minutes. One of these stops must have been in Portland as the route goes right through there. I do remember stopping in one place that seemed very cool – lots of record shops – and in my mind that's now Portland.

The bus stopped off in the woods at a place that was looked after by employees of Green Tortoise. There was a sauna built of wood into the hillside with a fire lit underneath it. We got in the sauna and then ran down to the stream afterwards and jumped in. It was such a beautiful place. A hippy showed me round his teepee (no, that's not a euphemism) and we all had a cook-out. Amazing!