It was rock and roll to want everyone to hear your record. “Led Zeppelin, The Who – those bands wanted to be famous. In an interview which took place a few years ago, Levine suggested the most innovation was taking place in electronic music now he leans more towards hip hop, although he’s quick to acknowledge that innovation has “always been there”. I have no time for people who have that mentality.” That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life. “If you love a band, why wouldn’t you wish them the most success? No band belongs to anybody. “Even when I was a punk kid growing up in the Nineties I was still like, ‘No! This is so stupid’,” he continues.

The one thing I tell every new band is, ‘you won’t make your fans happy, so don’t even try’.” “For all the people who want us to make an album that sounds like the first one, if we did it again, they’d be asking why we can’t move on from that scene.

But I think after a certain point if you’re playing the game and have your eye on the ball, you become less concerned about what people think and just do what you feel is right for the band. “It’s really interesting, we’ve been around forever, been criticised by everybody. “Trust me, it’s a dance,” Levine says of the band’s changing sound. “I do think we talk about him too much though.” This could be the spark that ignites a lot more awareness that wasn’t there before.” He pauses. I’m much more aware of what’s happening in the world because I’m much more concerned. “I think we’re being put to the ultimate test, the strength of our democracy is being challenged. It’s much more to me about being sad because people are so angry, and maybe it’s a good thing for us to purge all this anger, but really I just hope that we can prevail. That’s like a three-hour conversation,” he says. You can almost hear him shudder at the mention of Trump’s recent visit to the UK: “Oh god, I can’t touch that. “People are sometimes too rooted in reality and they can’t differentiate. “It’s like watching a horror film and notifying the people who made it to tell them you think they’re disgusting,” he says, exasperated. And the song is about animalistic tendencies, I’m talking about eating someone alive. It was supposed to be creepy! I play the role of the creep, it’s literally a character out of a movie. “It was the last video I would have expected to receive any criticism on that front. “That was f***ing ridiculous,” he says of the uproar, sounding more amused than annoyed.

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