How Ikea prompted a turning point for musician Coque Malla

His house is warm and cozy, and has a big garden out back. The décor has been well chosen and there are at least five biographies of the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards on the shelves. "He follows me," says Coque Malla, the 41-year-old ex-frontman of 1980s and 1990s Spanish rock sensation, Los Ronaldos.

Malla calls for silence, and offers his sofa as a VIP seat for four of his fans. "You can clap whenever you like," he says. "We won't take long. We're actually just the support act for the Spanish omelet that Macarena [his girlfriend] has made us. That's the real star of the night. Welcome to my house."

We are in Zarzalejo, a small town to the west of Madrid, near El Escorial. It's a dream location for anyone who is sick of paying rip-off rents in the capital. Coque Malla and his tortilla-making girlfriend took just a day to decide to take this new home.

And it is here that Malla is recording a new record. Still without a definitive title, it's a special live edition of his latest release, Termonuclear, played acoustically in front of a small group of friends, fans, his cat and his dog.

Before he starts the recording, Malla reflects on the recent changes in his life. "It's been a really messed up year for music," he says, sat in his garden. "Not just for me, but for all musicians. Even those who used to fill up stadiums. If you used to need to take one step to achieve something, now you have to take 15. Faced with that there were two options: get stressed out trying to respond to the expectations of the market, or free yourself and do what your gut was telling you to." Malla picked the second path.

While it might sound like a plug, a certain Swedish furniture company has had a lot to do with the new direction his life has taken. In 2010 he recorded an acoustic version of No puedo vivir sin ti, one of his biggest hits with Los Ronaldos, for an Ikea ad. "That was done specifically for the commercial," he explains, "and that warm, acoustic sound laid out a lot of what the record would be later on."

Termonuclear is the best and most inspired solo work by the singer so far. It's one of those albums that, unfortunately, did not sell too well, but holds a huge amount of emotion. "Asking whether it worked in economic terms is absurd," Malla says. "It went badly, like all the records that are released nowadays. But that doesn't matter. It had a lot of very strong emotions. It was written when there was a lot change and intensity in my life," he says, without going into personal details. "I'll let you into my front room," he jokes, "but not into my bedroom."