Sean Lennon is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, born in 1975 and raised in New York City. He looks more like his father than should be allowed, and he's about to release an album called 'Into the Sun' on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label.

He started playing the guitar when he was 12. By the time he reached his early 20's, Sean was the leader of grunge-ish trio IMA, who eventually became the backing band for Yoko Ono on the 1996 album 'Rising.' The result was the strange spectacle of Sean being in the same band as his mum.

"It was fucking crazy," he laughs. "We'd be like 'Weeeeeeeeargh!' and she'd be going, 'Screeeeeeeeee!'"

'Into the Sun,' by contrast, is a fantastically listenable record, founded on his desire to exude "that positive sunshine vibe" and soundtrack his romance with Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda (who guests on his album). Its terms of reference are 'Girl From Ip anema'-style Latin pop and the Beach Boys, oozing summery bliss in every note.

"I consciously made that kind of record," he explains. "I feel like a lot of people are like, 'Life is tough, everybody's against me, but I'm surviving.' It's like the Verve guy- he's walking down the street, pushing everybody out of the way, life is tough for him, but he's going to make it. I thought it'd be cool for me to do something that's totally naive and optimistic."

His friendship with Adam Yauch has now blossomed into a card carrying allegiance to the Grand Royal ideal: that artistic freedom is preferable to commerce-crazed pressure. This allows Sean to escape the not-as-big-as-your- dad curse, while being able to indulge all kinds of creative peccadilloes (like the six-minute jazz piece).

And what does he make of Liam [Gallagher]'s 'John Lennon is living inside me' claims?

"I thought that was all cute. What was funny was when he said, 'I'm not crazy like John Lennon, I don't think I'm God. I just think I'm John Lennon.' I thought that was kind of genius. I just think that they're like a living art-piece. Comments like that are just worth it. They make my day. It's the funniest shit."

Do you like their records?

"I haven't really listened to them. I like that song [adopts bizarre nasal cockney accent] 'Maybe, I don't really want to know...' I try not to have a problem with anything. But Oasis are definitely not the Beatles [laughs]. They're a mediocre pop band."