Aidan Moffat interview: Heart on his sleeve

AIDAN Moffat has asked to meet me for a romantic stroll in Queen's Park in Glasgow. The singer, best known as one half of the now disbanded Arab Strap, and a miserable, foul-mouthed half at that, has evidently gone soft.

Not only have we met to talk about his top 10 love songs of all time, he has very sweetly burned a CD of them for me. Moffat may have spent more than a decade writing songs about sexually transmitted infections and sex toys, booze and body parts, but now he has penned an album albumofbonafide love songs,which he will release on Valentine's Day.

"It does have a sunnier outlook than most of the older records," he says, before remarking on the beauty of a pond that has frozen over in great white swirls. We are walking in what can only be described as a blinding blizzard, fitting for an Aidan Moffat love story: beautiful, in a harsh way, bitterly cold. The snow is falling thick, peppering his beard, and he looks chipper in the face of adversity. "I thought a walk in the park would be nice, but you do get a few reprobates with their carry-outs," he nods at some damp, dismal looking teenagers. "When the sun starts to go down we should be on our way out."

Moffat chose Queen's Park because he didn't think I would treat him to a posh dinner in Rogano (he's right). "I don't think there are any romantic places in Glasgow," he says eventually, which sounds more like Arab Strap to me. His new album is called How To Get To Heaven From Scotland and it's a cheery listen despite lines such as "You punched me in the ear… I threw a grapefruit at your head/ And I've never loved you more". What brought on such warm, fuzzy feelings? "Everything I write tends to come from real life," he says. "But they all have a wee bit of an edge to them. Once you get to the end of this album, it's a message of hope rather than the usual maudlin stuff. The next one will be really miserable though. I'm doing a record with Bill Wells and we've decided it's going to be really grim."

We brace ourselves, walk into the wind, and Moffat tells me about his first love song: Dusty Springfield's 'Breakfast in Bed'. "This is the sexiest song I can imagine," he says. "I used to listen to it when I was 14, but it has only been since I've become a grown man that I've fully appreciated the sentiment. It's incredibly seductive, with that undercurrent of desperation and unfulfilled love." Most of the songs he has picked have an air of desperation. "I don't see the point in a love song if it's going to be wholly about happiness. You need that conflict," he says.

His second song, however, Ruby Andrews' 'Just Loving You', gives pure, unadulterated good feelings. "It's a brilliant soul record, with gorgeous strings." Moffat betrays his dark side when he says this is one for the start of a relationship. "All the happiness tends to be near the start, doesn't it? It's a song for the point in a relationship when you're still dancing with each other. I think this might be the only song I've ever danced to with my girlfriend. I'm not much of a dancer."

Next up is the Isley Brothers' 'This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)'. "I heard this when I was a wee boy," says Moffat. "I was always drawn to these dark love songs when I was a boy. I don't know why. My mum and dad had Motown Gold albums and I used to listen to them secretly because you never want your parents knowing you like the same music they do." His favourite line is "But if you leave me a hundred times/ A hundred times I'll take you back". "What absolute hopelessness!" he guffaws. "And it's pathetic. How bold to put that in a song and have grown men sing it."

Hopelessness springs eternal, it seems. Moffat also selects Jackie DeShannon's 'I Let Go Completely', in which "our heroine is treated so badly that this man only has to say the word and she crumbles. I guess that applies to relationships we've all had at some point." Moffat is luckier in love than his musical choices, though, and has been with his partner since "the early Arab Strap days", and they have a seven-month-old son. What's the secret of a longlasting, loving relationship? "Just ignore each other, and get on with it," he says with a grin.

Most of his choices are old soul records he grew up with, such as Jean Plum's 'Look At The Boy'. "There is such passion and performance in old soul songs," he says. He has also picked The Honey Cone's 'My Mind's On Leaving But My Heart Won't Let Me Go'. "It made me cry in Madrid airport," he recalls. "I had a particularly nasty breakup which was well documented on Arab Strap records. The song is about living with someone and realising there is no future in the relationship but caring too much to leave, and not wanting to leave them on their own. It pretty much summed up what had happened to me."

The Zombies' 'The Way I Feel Inside' makes the list because he likes its innocent, childish sentiment and the way "it's mostly a cappella until the end when the keyboard and bass kicks in, and it's just a beautiful wee thing." Number eight is the brilliantly titled 'I Forgot To Be Your Lover' by William Bell, which Moffat cheerily describes as "a recession love song".

We've done a circuit of the park and are on to Carole King's version of 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow'. For a moment we're back on Arab Strap ground. "It's for a one night stand," says Moffat, "when you're trying to get in someone's knickers. This version wins because it's got that miserable edge, it's very intimate with up close pianos and she breathes the words rather than sings them."

Here we are, in the middle of a snowstorm, on Moffat's final track. "'Sleep Walk' by Santo & Johnny," he says. "It's a Hawaiian sounding instrumental, and I consider it to be the most beautiful thing ever recorded. It's the twang of the guitar, the gentle wee drums… the perfect way to end any evening." When he says that this would be the first dance at his wedding if he ever got married, I fear that Moffat has had his cynicism surgically removed and morphed into a great, big lovebug. Then the miserablist returns. "But I also insist it's played at my funeral. It's a very versatile song."

• How To Get To Heaven From Scotland by Aidan Moffat and the Best-Ofs is out February 14, Chemikal Underground, www.aidanmoffat.co.uk