James Ford, the producer behind every Arctic Monkeys album since 2007, has revealed he wrote and recorded his new solo album while undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia in a London hospital. Working under isolation to protect his weakened immune system, he found that music offered him a way back to himself once his energy began to return, describing it as central to his identity and mental health. The record's release matters both as a personal milestone of recovery and as a rare, candid account from a producer usually working behind the scenes with major artists.

The album, Lost in Another World, was written and recorded in just two weeks last year with the help of a simple recording set-up his wife Sereen brought into St Bartholomew's Hospital, and is due for release on 14 August under his full name, James Ellis Ford. He has described the process of revisiting the songs for press and rehearsals as difficult, since it returns him to a dark period of his life, though he says being open about his illness has helped him process the experience. Ford has also announced live shows to support the album, despite finding it emotionally challenging to perform such personal material.