Hello, Ryan. Are you the most anonymously-successful man in music?
Yes, I am. The immediate association is that 'Apologize' is a Timbaland song but all it takes is one listen and you realize that Timbaland is nowhere to be heard on it. When 'Promiscuous' or 'SexyBack' came out, people didn't call those Timbaland songs. Timbaland told me that he thought the song would have been a hit with or without him but that he saved us a lot of time. If he hadn't stepped in I wouldn't be doing this interview for another year at least, so for that I can take the occasional misinterpretation.

It's not our fault! So, in brief, what's your story so far?
I won a record deal on a show called 'MTV Total Request Live' in 2000 in America performing as a singer-songwriter but it all ended up going nowhere fast. A year later I did a deal with Timbaland and he ended up briefly getting me a solo deal with Virgin records but then that fell through as well.

So after a bad experience with reality TV, why did you want to get involved with our X Factor winner Leona Lewis?
When I did the song for Leona I had no concept of what X Factor was, I had never seen it and didn't care. I'd never wanted to work with an American Idol either - I just didn't like what it turned out, I didn't like the artists that came from the shows and I didn't find them compelling. But someone sent me a link earlier in the year and her voice just sounded unreal. From a writer's perspective, this girl - with or without a TV show - has one of the best voices I've ever heard.

So which parts of the album can you lay claim to?
I did 'Take A Bow' which is probably going to be the second single, it should be, it's an absolute smash. But I also had a song called 'Bleeding Love', which I pitched as well, and Simon Cowell said that he knew on first listen that it was 'the one'.

Do you not think that Leona is maybe a little bit, well, boring to be a true superstar?
I think her personality is going to have to start coming through; she does have a personality, I've been with her, I've seen it. I do think that the image that needs to be projected to be a worldwide singer is more than just the voice, although you look at Rihanna and no one knows anything about her and she's massive without any tabloid coverage.

So, to sum up, you're having quite a brilliant month, aren't you?
Everything that is happening right now is unreal. It's one thing for it to happen in the States but the surreal aspect is that it's happened the world over at the same time. One minute I'm doing a phone interview to New Zealand, the next Australia, then it's Poland and it's all over the globe. That part is hard to wrap my head around.

You'll get used to it. Thank you erm, Whatshisname...

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