“Fascinating is a great word. I’d go almost so far as to say it’s miraculous, actually, what this idea can lead to. [American therapist] Richard Schwartz, who developed this thing, he actually unearthed it in session with his patient. He realised that your emotional traumas are living inside your body. So if I feel afraid, I can locate that feeling physically in my body.

“As a society we’re kind of oriented towards mitigating pain. There’s a problem, so we’re trying to get rid of it. But this approach is finding the source of pain, and then talking to it.”

Or singing to it. Livingston’s palette as a musician is closer to church than pop. His father was a New York preacher; he’s worked with the great Mavis Staples; the cadences and textures of gospel and soul are hardwired to his voice, but there’s a more experimental feel on Like Neptune to match the playful internal dialogues of its songs.

“That’s what’s funny,” he says. “I’ve had some teary moments in the past few years as I talked through some of these things, but for the most part, playful is the best word to describe all of it.

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“In the past I’ve avoided talking about certain things because it’s too heavy. But for me, the key to it has been approaching pain, approaching trauma, these painful memories, with curiosity. And it really is like you’re playing with it.

“Instead of being like, ‘Oh, how do I make it stop?’ It’s finding out like, ‘OK, who’s in there? Who’s feeling anxious right now?’ And as surprising as it may be, there’s usually an answer. When you ask yourself, what is this feeling? Who’s it coming from? … That’s kind of where all the action is. The fun starts there.”

Livingston admits that the pandemic suited his essentially solitary nature well, the better to commune with what he jokingly refers to as his “inner R’n’B boy band”. But his imminent return finds the studio loner performing with a trio for the first time in Australia.

“I was just talking about that with my therapist,” he says. “I certainly have been a loner, most of my life. I’ve always felt a little outside of every group that I’ve ever been in. So, I’m actually exploring that right now to figure out, you know, is that just how I am? Or have I isolated myself for whatever reason? I guess the simple answer is probably just yes.”