After years spent playing other people's music, first with Cirque du Soleil, then alongside artists like Sinéad O'Connor and Skunk Anansie, and now as part of The Wedding Present, Rachael Wood has released her debut solo album. It's called It's Not The End Of The World, and it puts her somewhere she admits still feels unfamiliar: front and centre. In this episode we talk about starting out at eight years old with a guitar bigger than she was, learning by ear before YouTube existed, and what it's like to go from "side woman" to the person everyone in the room is suddenly looking at. We get into why she finds writing lyrics so much harder than playing guitar, why she avoided using AI anywhere near the songwriting process, and the surreal experience of playing guitar for Cirque du Soleil, where someone's backflip depended on her hitting the right note at the right time. We also somehow end up discussing David Bowie, guitar solos, sweaty small venues, the one guitar she'd save if she could only keep one, and yes, a fairly serious debate about cheese. Hard over soft, British over French, Cheddar over Stilton, and why mascarpone just doesn't cut it. It wanders a bit. We didn't try to stop it. Rachael Wood's debut album It's Not The End Of The World is out now. The Third Half. Interesting people, interesting ideas, and apparently quite a lot of cheese.