"As we were making the album," he recalls, "or as we were doing the demos for it, the single before - Are Friends Electric? - had just started to get into the chart and do really well, so it was this amazing time. I always used to find going into the studio was an event anyway, I always used to get dressed up for it. You really felt like you were doing something, and didn't take it for granted."

One event in particular stands out in his memory. "The day I did the demo for Cars, I came out of the studio and was just behind The Strand, walking back to the place where I'd put the car, and I heard Are Friends Electric? coming out of the window. It was the first time I'd ever heard one of my songs being played by somebody else, and me and two other blokes stood outside this window, this woman's window that was two floors up. She was ironing, and though I couldn't see her we could just the silhouette at the curtain, and she was dancing to Are Friends Electric? while she was doing the ironing! It was surreal, but we stood there for the whole song, watching this woman dancing."

Suddenly his life was going to change. "All that was happening, and people started asking for autographs just as we were starting to make The Pleasure Principle, and because of that it was the most vibey album that I'd ever made, and the whole world was just beginning to open up. It was an absolutely amazing time. In the middle of all that we were in the studio doing stuff, and every day the record company were coming in and saying good things about it, and it was genuinely a dream come true. Four weeks of that - I loved it!"

Revisiting the record reveals other elements of Numan's approach. "It's funny, because when I listen to the record it's not that part about it that comes back to me, it's what's wrong with the record!" He clarifies. "It's an unfortunate characteristic that I've always had, that I can never listen to myself, because all I ever I hear is what I should have done, and The Pleasure Principle is riddled with stuff like that." Does that mean there are mistakes in its execution? "Yeah, but mostly instrumentation." He pauses. "I suppose of its time," he grudgingly admits, "it was probably alright, but you can't listen to it in that way. I can't, anyway."

So what's so wrong with it? "I find the arrangement's a little bit clumsy, and the feel of the production is very thin. It means you go into a chorus and it doesn't really explode. Now, with the whole dynamic of the song you learn to do it better. But there's virtually none, in this record anyway. A song will start with the chorus, and it's at the same level as the verse before it!"

Does that mean it has more of a live feel? He shakes his head. "I don't think so, because if anything you can do more extreme dynamics live now. This was only my third album, and I made three albums in 12 months - like bang bang bang! I was still at the start of my songwriting, then, and very young - I had just turned 21. I was very naive, and not worldly in any way at all. So when I listen back to it I realise what it did, and from that I have particular affection for it, but from a songwriting point of view or a production point of view I could have done a much better job."

He considers further. "But then I suppose it might not have been the album that it was! I don't think that's necessarily a bad trait to have though, because only by listening to what went wrong before that you can learn. It's like relationships really, you make one mistake and fuck it all up, then you have another one, and try and do a bit better. Then suddenly you're grown up and you're handling it properly - ish! Musically, though, I would be worried if I thought I knew a lot. Even now, I don't feel massively confident that I know a lot about making music, and still feel that there is a vast amount to learn."

Numan's pioneering spirit, that spirit that led him to those three albums in a year, still burns beneath the surface. "I've been doing this for 30 years, but every time I start an album I find the strong need to find sounds and ways of structuring sounds that I've not done before, within the framework of something that's original. Something you come up with might be original, but it'll be so weird that you just can't listen to it! So there's middle ground - and sometimes I've failed dismally at it, other times I've done a bit better. It's the genuine intention when you start an album to try and make it better, to fix mistakes from the last one but make a big step forward, to find new sounds and new ideas, and then hope for the best after that."

He opens up further. "I had a period in my middle years where things weren't going so well and I was really bothered that the career was sliding really badly, and I went through a period where I was writing songs just to keep the career alive, and trying to second guess the sounds that people wanted." He winces at the thought. "It was horrible, as I had no idea of the sounds that people really wanted, and secondly you shouldn't write songs in that way, you should do it because you genuinely love it, not because you think you might be giving people what they want."

Something had to change. "I had this soulless period in the middle, and it wasn't until about 1994 that I got out of that and made stuff that I really loved. Not commercial in any way - it was difficult to sell - but actually enjoying my day, and not going through the motions." It's an experience that has nonetheless been valuable in the long term. "With things like making The Pleasure Principle, I was getting a real joy in what I do because it was new and exciting. I lost all of that. It was my own fault, nobody did anything to me, but I lost the way of thinking and got all career-orientated. But then from '94 onwards I got back into that way of thinking and have been here ever since."

So he knows what to do to avoid such periods? "I don't think I'll ever get back to that," he says. "As soon as someone says 'that's a good radio track' you think 'I won't be doing that again!'" My more recent stuff, I know it's radio unfriendly, but I'm quite proud of myself for that. Most people who have been around as long as me are doing the opposite, trying to milk things and following that safe middle road, doing versions of what made them successful."

  CONTINUED...
Read Part 2 of this interview

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees