2010 has been a strange year for Kano. After featuring on Gorillaz's latest album, Plastic Beach, he packed his bags and travelled the world with Damon Albarn's cartoon band.

Going from arena to arena, time-zone to time-zone, continent to continent left him pinching himself.

"Sometimes it is surreal performing up there with Paul Simonon and Mick Jones behind you, Bobby Womack side of stage watching you and Damon as well.

"The world tour was something that was probably never going to happen again and was going to be the experience of a lifetime," says Kano.

Now the 25-year-old has taken a break from his Gorillaz duties to tour his new album, Method To The Maadness, in some of the UK's smaller venues.

"Playing the bigger shows or the bigger festivals you always find it hard to connect to the audience. You still get a vibe off the noise from the audience and being on the stage in front of so many people.

"In the more intimate venues it's a different kind of experience. I think the bigger you get as an artist you get to a stage where, say you play stadiums, you want to come back and do smaller shows. All musicians miss that no matter how big they are".

The London rapper is looking forward to performing his latest songs but with four albums it's not easy choosing a set-list.

"I've performed quite a few songs off the album now, Get Wild and Crazy are big ones. There are some up-tempo tunes that people can let loose to. I also still perform the classics like Ps and Qs, so it's nice having that mix and a set that's more lively.

"Some songs get the elbow as you go along but some always stay. I like to change it up sometimes and not do the obvious ones, it's about doing what works for the place you are in.

"When you do your own shows they know you in and out and they know the old stuff. You might get away playing something from a mixtape or doing a freestyle".

Kano is taking Mz Bratt as support, having opened for the likes of Jay-Z and The Streets, he hopes the East London grime artist can follow in his footsteps.

"I've never had a female support before. Mainly my supports have been people I've worked with but I've been watching her and a lot of people are talking about her. Over the years there's been Ghetts and Tinchy Stryder and they've gone on to be huge, so hopefully she will do her own thing.

"I've got so much respect for support acts because I started out supporting Mike Skinner and he gave me the opportunity. We got to go up and down the UK and it put me in front of a different audience and gave me that experience of performing. When it came to my own shows I was so well prepared for it".

Method To The Maadness boasts an impressive list of producers including Albarn, Hot Chip and Chase & Status, as well as guest appearances from Wiley and Michelle Breeze. Kano, however, manages to put his own stamp on the record.

"I didn't want an album that sounded like a compilation but I wasn't just going to work with one person throughout. You've got that thing of making it sound like a body of work that works together and that has your uniqueness coming through.

"I've done that by playing to producers what I already had so they could understand where my head was at. I'm not the type of artist that gets sent a beat, records the track and lets a producer finish it. I'm there in the studio giving my input."

"I've done a lot of things for the first time this year and I think that's what I'm most proud of. Whether it is the Glastonbury show, or releasing an album independently or touring America.

"Every year I like to do something new, keep it interesting and keep growing as an artist. Then try and do it better next year, I'm just looking forward to improving".

If 2010 was a year to remember for Kano, then 2011 could be even better.

• Kano plays the Old Fire Station, December 2.