Your latest album ‘tarred and feathered’ has been out for a couple of months. It’s been getting pretty much rave reviews all around. You must be happy with its reception?
It’s very “shiny” and superficial on one level but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface and we spent a lot of time getting the details right. People that took the time to listen seemed to get it and it also seems to be a bit of a grower.
Relatively conceptual across the album, and political in parts, has the album taken on a new meaning to you given the recent general election and political news?
Well it’s odd to think of it that way. I don’t like to write overtly political stuff for a number of reasons (mostly because I think I’m not very good at it and it comes across as clunky) but I was increasingly conscious of the subtext of being “outcast” or feeling like a refugee in about half the songs as we came to finish it. Some of the songs definitely had that consciously put in or emphasised and others just seemed to relate to those themes by chance. They are still just “stupid” pop songs too if that’s what you want to hear!
Your next single to be released is summer wine. Tell us about the track and what it means to you?
We’ve been covering the song for about a year and it was going to be included on the album or as a B-Side (remember them?) but we couldn’t get the feel or mix right. I changed a few parts to be closer to the live version we’d worked up and it just clicked. It’s about a woman drugging a cowboy to steal his silver spurs. Not sure what the subtext is there with Naomi and me though! I don’t own any cowboy boots for the record!
Not to put too much pressure on you, but tarred took 3 years to write; does that means you’ve already started on it’s follow up?
It took 3 years to finish but the songs were written early on, give or take one or two. The songs for what might be the next album are already written and we’ve started working them up. We don’t work in any conventional way in terms of writing and rehearsing and, believe it or not, we’re very experimental in how we progress the ideas so it just takes as long as it takes.
Finally, what does the remainder of 2017 look like for you?
Well we’re touring the UK later in the year at O2 Academy venues mostly and we have a possible 17 minute thing to release maybe around September that will put Tarred to bed and also introduce a glimpse of where we might be headed. It’s pretty far out!