When Damon Gough got back from touring the excellent, if criminally overlooked, album Born In The UK a few years ago, the experience had "psychologically scarred" him so much that he thought about jacking the whole business in. He was proud of the album and "thought it deserved more" but it seemed the musical universe had turned and didn't have time for Badly Drawn Boy anymore. "There was a point where I took a look at myself and decided to take a break. I became phobic about going back into the studio. I struggled to justify going back."

Gough took his comparative lack of success in the latter part of the decade to heart.

"I found it increasingly hard to put that stuff in the world and know it will be judged," he says. "A lot of my lyrics are personal. It's hard to deal with that. I was never gonna say I'm stopping but I had lost faith in what I do."

Anyone familiar with Gough's career will be unsurprised to learn that a soundtrack came to his rescue. Last year, when he was at a pretty low ebb, he got a call asking him to write some music for the TV film The Fattest Man in Britain. "It got me back in the studio," he explains. "I thought I've got to do this – if I don't, it would be criminal."

You'll forgive Gough for "feeling a bit weird" about his career vicissitudes to date. Ten years ago, he had just won the Mercury music prize with his debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast. He had also just turned 30 and had a newborn baby to deal with.

"This might sound strange," he says, "but all that seems like another lifetime. It's all a bit distorted."

Having now just turned 40, the Badly Drawn Boy of 2010 is certainly a more reflective version of the sometimes contrary singer-songwriter of yester-decade. "It sometimes shocks people that I'm 40," he says, "but I never lied about it – unlike some people. I was a late starter, someone whose only dream was to be a sound engineer, who became a popular recording artist by accident."

Bolton-born Gough never even dreamt of becoming a recording artist. As a kid he was obsessed with keyboards and sound engineering, only learning to play guitar to test out the equipment. When he happened on a few songs of his own, it took serious persuasion from friends for him to even record them. His first few EPs made it to press in the late 1990s, and, along with a bit of help from his mates in that other Lancashire success story of the time, Doves, his debut appeared in summer 2000 to rave reviews.

"Even I don't understand it," he says now of the overnight success. "I'm amazed at how savvy people are at playing the game these days. I never expected it to happen. But I don't take credit for it. The whole thing for me was a mistake. I hardly did any gigs – I didn't want to do gigs. When I finished work in Christmas 1998 I expected to go back afterwards because I was broke. Then I got a record deal and won the Mercury with my debut. That was a brilliant moment and a big shock. Take a band like Elbow. People were saying it about them for years. They never said it about me."

Gough's biggest selling album to date was also a mistake of sorts. He was asked to write some music for the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel About A Boy, starring Hugh Grant.

"That put me on a different level," he says, "even though my record company may have been disappointed."

He admits he was a bit nervous about the music "because I thought it might alienate some of my fanbase". He needn't have worried as the result was a beautiful collection of lush tunes that became ubiquitous on TV. At the same time, Gough was working on Have You Fed the Fish?, an uneven if more commercial-sounding follow-up to his debut album that arguably led to some confusion as to who the real Damon Gough was, something he still hasn't been quite able to overcome.

Still, his recent soundtrack has led him back to the studio and a new Badly Drawn Boy album will appear in October. Titled It's What I'm Thinking, it sounds "recognisably me", says Gough.

"This one is a bit more together; a bit more concise and I've never had such a universally positive reaction from those who have heard it. As soon as I finish any project I hate it."

Badly Drawn Boy plays a solo gig at the Radisson Live Lounge on Saturday as part of the Galway Arts Festival