Question: This is a very political song, how would you reply to those who say musicians and politics shouldn't mix?

Jac: I don't think that's true. It's always been one of the functions of artists to say the things that need saying. Back in the middle ages it was the job of the court jester or bard to tell the king what was wrong in the kingdom and how foolish he was being. What's different in the modern world is that as soon as someone says anything that resonates with a large number of people the marketers jump on the bandwagon and try to use and distort that feeling in order to sell their products or to push through polices that only help themselves. It's become so hard to work out who's being genuine and who isn't and that's led to a lot of cynicism. And in a way you almost have to be a cynic to survive in our society we've been told so many lies.

Question: Is this politicians you are talking about?

Jac: Not just them – most of the lies are from advertising, I mean if you take what most advertisers say at face value it's just not true – you need to filter out the exaggeration. But it's not just what they say, it's how they manipulate emotions. For example, they use how music makes you feel and try to attach that feeling to their product. That's what the line 'all your love and fears used against you' is about. The song is about breaking through our protection from all of that marketing emotional manipulation by recognising how crazy it is to run around trying to compete against each other. Competition is the opposite of community. You can't have community if you are constantly trying to aspire to be better than your neighbours. Real community and real friendships are one thing that it's very hard for marketers to fake.

Question: So what does the line about the hammer and sickle mean are you suggesting communism?

Jac: No, no. not at all in fact the opposite. I'm saying communism as a system was broken from the start. It's a bogey man used to frighten us into thinking there's no alternative but to keep the present system and not change. I mean, the communists banned all private property and shut down all businesses. If you read 'Russia In The Shadows' by HG Wells about his trip to the USSR in 1920 you get a totally different view about what communism really was and how mad it actually is. It was obvious from the start that it would end up as this terrible totalitarian regime. In reality there's so many different ways to do things. To say it's either full blown capitalism or it's communism is rubbish. It's not even as if you have to have a system that lies on the same scale. We're taught that there's this line between communism and capitalism and that politics swings back and forth along it but there is no such line it just limits thinking to a 19th century world view. There's always more than two ways to approach anything in fact there's likely to be hundreds if not thousands of ways. We need to get together and crystallise some of them, and the most important thing is that it needs to have respect for people at it's heart so whatever people come up with is going to lead to a better world.