VH1.com caught up with David Gray in a Portland, Ore., hotel, near the start of his U.S. tour in support of White Ladder. Helpful hipsters that we are, we assisted him in finding the latest English soccer scores on the Net; he in turn, talked to us about his album, his hard-won European success, and the music he loves.

VH1.com: The story of your success in Europe is fairly atypical for an artist these days.

David Gray: It's taken a lot of people by surprise, myself included. But it's like, why not? If you make something of spirit, it just goes out into the world and starts creating ripples. I just didn't realize the scale it was going to get to. It's been fantastic. And it's just getting started over here. Around the world, it's already well advanced, but there are more chapters to be written, I think.

Was there a crucial turning point for you in Europe?

Ever since we made [White Ladder] - the way we made it, the way we went about things, and put it out ourselves - we just got on the right path, and the right people and the right things just started to fall into place. The deal with EastWest in the U.K., the deal with Dave Matthews' label here [According to Our Records] - they all just made sense, they felt right, they were the right people at the right time. All the people who've been involved with the record have had a profound effect upon it.

Obviously, there was only so much we could do ourselves É big record companies are really good at selling something that already works. So it's all been working perfectly. There's been no clash; I had to listen to hardly any bullsh*t about people's opinions, what they think. We had already given them a finished product; it was very satisfying to just get on with the business side of it. The music was made.

When Capitol Radio in London added "Babylon" onto the A list this year, that was a big moment. And when Radio One added it there, that certainly was a significant thing as far as the success of the record in Britain. But here, I don't think we've reached our critical moment just yet. Dave Matthews' label have done a phenomenal job doing all the groundwork and now we're at that breakthrough point where it's either going to get everyone in the industry salivating or it won't.

You seemed to have done a remarkable show at the Point Depot in Dublin [the city's major indoor venue, seating 8,500].

That was brilliant. That was a monumental occasion for us. We had worked so long to get to that point, myself and the band and everyone else involved. That was a really special night. There are certain times when you see the future and you step into bigger shoes. You have to cast the skin of insecurity aside É It was like, come on, let's go, why not us instead of some other band?

You've really connected with an Irish audience.

They've been phenomenal. It's been such a long-running story. I've been sort of adopted by them because I've toured so extensively [there], far beyond what you're expected to do, because I really wanted to. I didn't want to go back to England, where I was being ignored. I wanted to stay as long as possible.

You toured in America opening for Radiohead, which seems an odd match.

That was a great tour. And what a brilliant band to watch up close as they were really taking off. I certainly learned a thing or two about professionalism there. They really do it, those boys, they really deliver night after night.

They were basically fans, Thom [Yorke] and Jonny [Greenwood], when my first album, A Century Ends, came out. My agent knew they were fans and suggested my playing with them in America. And we did. And we got on like a house on fire. It was weird. It was an unlikely combination but it worked. We're not like the shrinking violets on the stage. If you do anything with enough gusto, people will just get into it.

How do you feel about touring a country as big as the U.S.?

You've really got to do it. I think that's why not many British bands have been cracking America. They get success over there and they think that all they have to bring to America is their cool. They turn up in New York, L.A., San Francisco É do a few shows and f*ck off again, and [think] the whole thing is going to fall into place. Like, go on record company, weave your magic.

It's really shaking hands and turning up at radio stations that does it over here. You come over and see that the chart is full of things you've never heard of, that don't translate in England, really. It's like bands that basically just work America. That's the competition. They go round and go everywhere - every radio station, be it in Idaho, Vermont, whatever. They'll go there, they'll play, they'll shake hands, they'll do the festival the radio station puts on, they build a relationship. It's like a business. It's quite dull, in fact. But you can see how it all works, there's a vibe about it. In a country that's so big you really have to make the personal contact. Bands like U2 really came over and did America. And that's what you've got to do to get something back.

Let's talk about your record. The do-it-yourself quality of White Ladder contributes to a really good, very personal sound.

It has character, a naturalness; it didn't need to be dressed up. A time and a place is what a record is all about; [White Ladder] had its own feel as a record and that obviously counts for so much.

When you go into big studios, what you actually get is posh productions and that makes every record sound similar, unless you're an absolute genius about how to use the desk. We didn't feel comfortable with 2,000 knobs and 400 pieces of outboard gear. So we didn't have anything really to play with, all we had was the sound we made and a few limited textures. That was enough. There's a spirit and softness to the record; it's really mellow. It was a very understated dynamic. We couldn't strive for a big sound. And that can be surprisingly powerful, I think.

The electronic touches actually lend it more warmth.

We definitely made a decision that rock was out, as far as we were concerned. We weren't going to kerrang anymore or overstate anything. We were going to find other ways around the music. The groove seemed to work much better than an electric guitar or a heavily hit drum as far as getting a point across. It allowed a lot of space for the words and the chords. It never interfered.

Was this a more collaborative process than your previous records?

It definitely was a collaborative thing. I involved Clune [producer/songwriter Craig McClune] for a little while before the making of the record. We'd be grooving away somewhere in a rehearsal room, we'd tape it, develop the chords, and groove a bit more. We were just having fun, basically. We were starting songs from different things, from beats and basslines or from sounds I found on some of my synths. I'd find a weird sound and the song would grow out of that.

You wind up your album with a version of Soft Cell's "Say Hello Wave Goodbye," which is certainly an unusual cover choice. Do you perform any others?

We do the odd one; it's not a big thing. I like the unlikely ones, the ones no one would expect. There's something dreadfully dull about doing a Bob Dylan cover, for example. Why should I do that? It's already obvious that I loved him all through my set. It's far nicer to turn something on its head. Music can go in so many different ways. It's like you remix a song and it's virtually unidentifiable from the original - and sometimes a hundred times better. Likewise, you can take a song and do it in a completely different style.

Those unlikely twists can really be the making of something. I'm always on the lookout for something ridiculous that no one would dream of covering, like "Careless Whisper" by George Michael. But I'm rather drawn to these '80s ballads. I'm betraying my teenage nostalgia.