YORK singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich, now moved to North London, will return home on Sunday to showcase songs from his second coming, otherwise known as his sophomore album After The Rain.

Fully five years after his 100,000-selling debut, Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm, the belated follow-up will be released on August 19 through Dirty Hit Records, the label that has overseen the success of Wolf Alice and The 1975. Already you can hear the single Tilikum on Spotify and pre-order the album on iTunes, CD and vinyl through Ben's website, benjaminfrancisleftwich.com. The first 500 pre-orders will include a hand-signed and personalised art card by Ben.

Ben's debut had attracted as many as 150 million global Spotify plays, but his life took an unexpected path with the loss of his father, his number one source of inspiration. Coming at the peak of Ben’s success and stuck between tours and caring for his ailing father, he invited producers to his home city in an attempt to work on new material, but to muted results. “I just knew that I needed to not do this for a while,” he admits of his mental state following his father’s passing. “For me, I just needed to live outside of music.”

His journey took him to North London, where he moved two and a half years ago. "I've just moved again, deeper into North London, Tottenham, proper North London," says Ben.

"As a songwriter you need to be somewhere you can feel at least comfortable in your head, mind and body. For me, I love York, it's always my home, and I'm passionate about the musicians there, but there were ghosts for me, so I needed to leave at that time.

"I'd been to London a lot, often there between touring, and one day my tour manager just picked me up, threw my bags in the back of the van and I moved south."

Ben's second album ideally would have arrived earlier, but the death of his father, Adrian, a lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of York, on April 2 2013, understandably consumed him. "Losing my father was a really tough time and I miss him all the time, " he says. "When something like that happens, it affects everything, not just crying but every part of you. It was really hard for me.

"I would remember how he used to take me to my gigs at Fibbers, even though he was always wanting me to go to university as he was worried about the reality of a music career. I was playing gigs in York from the age of 13, first at Fibbers, then I'd play The Band Room at Low Mill; The Snooty Fox in Wakefield; in Thirsk too and at the NCEM in York, and he was always there for me."

His father had an influence on Ben's songwriting too. "He knew about words, as a lecturer, so he told me about the importance of presenting things in an understandable way. He would say all my songs were good, but some were better than others at being clear," says Ben.

"The feeling of loss is something that doesn't ever go away and that's part of the process of dealing with it, knowing it's not something with a fixed ending."

Nevertheless, as the title After The Rain would indicate, the album is said to be the sound of Ben finding peace with himself once more. Written during those months when he was at his lowest, it is a "creation that exists between light and dark".

"Not every song on the album is about my father's death in particular, but I don't see any distinction between my personal life and my musical life. Something like that has an impact on everything in my life, but there have been some moments that have been amazing and some that haven't, andI shall of course dedicate the record to my father as he's shaped its colours."

Ben has begun his return with Tilikum, the first cut to be launched from the new long player produced by Alt-J and Money producer Charlie Andrew.

The song was composed in the living room opposite his father’s old house, when Ben returned to York desperate to glean positivity from the isolation he felt, and further tracks will be Some Other Arms; She Will Sing; Kicking Roses; Summer; Just Breathe; Cocaine Doll; Groves; Day By Day; Immortal; Mayflies and Frozen Moor.

"Groves is the most significant song for York as The Groves is where I grew up," he says. "For me that song is so much about loss and is so personal and specific to York."

Benjamin Francis Leftwich plays The Crescent in York on Sunday, preceded by Live At Leeds on Saturday. Tickets can be booked via benjaminfrancisleftwich.com. Doors open at 7pm on Sunday; Sam Griffiths will be on stage at 7.30pm; Benjamin at 8.15pm.