Kieran Hodgson on his new Fringe show Maestro

How do you follow a show that was deemed one of the best in 2015?

For Kieran Hodgson – the man behind last year’s cycling spectacular Lance – the answer is simple: write a symphony. "I was trying to up the ante," he says. "Not sure how many others have tried to write a symphony. People might think, 'We’ll give him a hearing because he’s gone to the effort.' Marks are awarded for effort at the Fringe."

Effort is not something Hodgson can be accused of lacking. His prior show about Lance Armstrong, and the impact the American cyclist hero had on a young lad from rural Yorkshire, meant Hodgson spent the entire Fringe run and subsequent tour on an exercise bike. "I’ve put the resistance down," he explains. "At Edinburgh it was on two but it’s on zero now. Basically just freewheeling."

Though Lance was based around the symbolic death of an idol, it was more about the end of innocence. It's a similar story with Maestro, his new show about classical music – Hodgson uses the theme as a starting point to tell a story of his life: "The show is about the emotional attachment to the music, which is something people have regardless of the genre, and the process of me trying to write this symphony is mirrored with me trying to fall in love."

Hoping not to scare too many people away with the supposedly haughty world of symphonies and orchestras, he’s "making sure that zero prior knowledge is required," adding: "The music that I’m drawn to is classical music. It might be easier to do something with the guitar but that’s not how I operate."

Maestro will see Hodgson play the violin on stage, something he says is much easier to trek across Edinburgh with than the exercise bike of last year’s show. He has a special recording too: "Back in January I got some friends together to make an orchestra, so the music from that recording is going to play over the speakers throughout the show – it was prohibitively expensive to get 40 people to appear on stage."

Realism is key to his shows; the beating heart of the very personal Lance was a young Hodgson finding his way through the Yorkshire town of his birth to the city of his university days, all populated with his brilliant ability for characterisation. "I’ve always been good at voices," he says. "I never really felt that Kieran Hodgson as a persona was ever going to be something that people were interested in."

The worry for Hodgson is that this mining from his own history will run thin. "French Exchange [his 2014 show] all took place in one time period, and with Lance I was growing up. With Maestro it’s going back and forth quite a bit. So there’s a bit where I’m 11, a bit where I’m at uni, and a bit where I was living in France. Not sure I can do another show that’s along those lines. There’s only so long you can tell your life story when you’re 28."

There's always the possibitly his next show could be about the various Edinburgh shows he’s taken to the Fringe over the last decade or so. "A friend asked me if I was going to do a show that was called Kieran Hodgson: Comedy, 'where all the characters are like friends of yours in comedy.’" He ponders for a short time before adding, "But that would be the least relatable show ever."

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Kieran Hodgson: Maestro, Voodoo Rooms (Speakeasy), 6-28 Aug, 9.30pm, PBH Free Fringe.