His Walk of Life

INTERVIEW/ Mark Knopfler

You certainly capture the imagination of not just ordinary mortals but even cricketing geniuses like Sachin Tendulkar. Do you follow the game?

Yes, on the periphery. I keep tabs on how the English team's doing. Out here in London, it's football all the time.

Enough has been said about your pyro-techniques giving way to single-note magic. Is this merely age?

Simplicity is the essence of life, but simple should not be confused with the mundane. What I have cut out is rich orchestration. My songs and music have evolved with me.

One hopes the unfortunate motorbike accident last year will not stop you playing the end piece lead of "Sultans of Swing" in India?

I'll play it for you guys even if it kills me. Just joking. I am in perfectly good shape to play anything. And since I hear all of you love Dire Straits, I'll play all the big hits.

Shangri-la is your best work since Goldenheart. How would you rate it?

I am pleased with Shangri-la. I don't mean to sound self-satisfied or anything. It came out the way we wanted it to, we did it in about three weeks.

The band plays so well I don't tell 'em what I want to hear unless there's something specific, like I want a more splashy hi-hat. But generally, you don't tell players like that how to play "" a director wouldn't tell a great actor how to play a part.

Basically, I come in and sing the song with a guitar to everybody and then they start thinking what they might be able to do with it.

You have written awesome lyrics like "Industrial Disease" and "Telegraph Road" in the past. Does it startle you that people are suddenly sitting up and attributing your almost screenplay-style brilliance to "a renewed emphasis"?

Not really. Song-writing and composing are complex creative processes. Sometimes one is inspired; other times it's just a melody that plays in the mind and the words are added to turn it into a song. In a body of music there'll be some great songs and some great tunes. Everything else is music that tickles one's senses.

Songs about everything from the glory of the defeated ("Sonny Liston") to a business icon such as Ray Kroc to the ironies of our times ("Don't crash the ambulance") crop up in your expressions. But what are the concerns that hit you in your face?

Everything that happens around me concerns me. Some I can articulate as a writer and musician, some get lodged in the mind and stay there.