Music
Digital Spy caught up with them to find out all about their songwriting style, how much they enjoy touring and their upcoming releases.
You've got an unusual name and there's quite a complicated story behind it. Can you explain for the benefit of our readers?
Dan: Originally the name came from, it was within an education act, and it implemented an overzealous implementation of religious studies and religion within the educational system. That in itself wasn't a particular reason why we chose it. I think at the time there were bands around like Pulp, Blur and Oasis, who had very short names, and ours has always been our wont - to be awkward! So we wanted something long and difficult and obstinate, so that was the main reasoning behind it.
How has the departure of Didz Hammond affected the dynamic of the band?
Ben: It was strange when he said that he was going to leave the band, but within a couple of weeks we realised that this parting had been inevitable from the previous album or so. We'd grown apart as people, the five of us and him, and he was based in London and we were recording in the West Country, so it was a shame, but it made us a lot stronger and tighter, pulling in the same direction. His departure, I guess, we'd become a bit more focused and we became stronger in terms of songwriting and in terms of playing live. Sometimes it works for you to lose a member and sometimes it doesn't. Luckily it's worked in our favour.
Was the departure as amicable as it appeared?
Dan: It was very amicable. We're still friends, we sill hang out. A lot of it was to do with the fact that he had a family. Your priorities change when you have kids, it's something you have to think about. The difference was, it would be a three hour drive to the West Country, it would be six hours away from his family each day, and hence he wasn't with us. It'd be half an hour out of each day to have something in London that he could do. It played a big part and I think the fact that he couldn't be around as much meant he was feeling slightly disaffected, slightly frustrated, and we were feeling the same thing. When we were working on a track, we'd want to get it going to the next level as soon as possible, without having to ring Didz up and say 'can you come in tomorrow to lay down a bass line'. We were forced to go on and put our own bass ideas down. It's one of those things - I think the break up of any relationship, you don't see it coming until it's too late - and then in hindsight you're like, it was always going to end up this way. But yeah, it was very amicable. There was no big bust up or anything. It was very diplomatic.
How much creative input do you get into your work - both production and video wise?
Ben: We get complete say on what we release in terms of music and videos. It's very important to have as much control as you can, and I'd advise any young band starting out to make sure that's one of the criteria of any contract they sign is that they have a say in their output. Ultimately, it's your career, so it's very important for us to have complete creative control. Certainly music, and on videos, it's very important to work in tandem with the directors who have a vision for turning your song to video format.
Your third album is out on January 22. How has your sound evolved since the beginning?
Dan: I'm not sure. Certainly it's a more focused album as far as the songs go. Straight from the beginning we wanted to progress, from album to album and the way we decided would be best to do that this time round would be to work on the songwriting, to really work on our craft as songwriters. So as a result, I think this album contains stronger songs than any of the previous albums. Each track is more focused, but probably as a result of each track being more focused, the whole album is far more eclectic than before, whereas in previous albums we go in various directions with each song, this time round each song is doing its own thing, and really concentrating on that. Across the album, it's very different and very effective.
What's your songwriting style?
Ben: Each song is very different. One comes from one person, or other people. And then everyone else puts their own input into it. But like Dan was saying, it's very important for this band to progress and go in a new direction, a forward direction, and not make anything similar or the same to what they've done before. That's why we were encouraged by Chris Hughs to really work on the actual songwriting and get the bones of the song before actually adding all the countless ideas for different instruments - it was very important just to get the raw ideas for the guitar, or piano, or voice, or things like that.
Have you ever been affected like Pete Doherty by the sex, drugs and rock and roll culture of the music industry? How do you cope with it?
Ben: It's not that we stay away from anything like that, we don't choose to document what we get up to in our private lives, spare hours. We're just very lucky to be very strong friends with each other, having met at school before forming the band. We keep each other grounded. When Pete and Carl were together in The Libertines, that bond of friendship kept them going strong and maybe since they've parted there's maybe...you hear about these troubles more because they're not together and keeping it inhouse and supporting each other. We're very lucky that we're such strong friends that we do look after each other and have fun together in all varieties, shapes and forms.
You're just about to go and play some gigs abroad - do you do this much? How different are the fans from UK ones?
Ben: We love playing abroad. When we first signed, it's one of the reasons we first signed with BMG, because we wanted the chance to go and tour across the world and be an international band and play to a variety of different countries and audiences. We've still maintained that ethos, and going out to Germany before the album release was one of our hopes and plans because we've received such great support in Germany, we've done countless tours there, really made a lot of friends over there. We'd like to go abroad and tour as much as possible. We'll be going to Japan very shortly, to America and I'm sure we'll be doing the Mediterranean as well. We just love touring.
Japanese fans are meant to be crazy. What's your experience? Have you been there much?
Dan: We've been to Japan about twenty...
Ben: That's a massive lie!
Dan: I was in Germany mode.
Ben: Maybe about seven times. I'll let Dan answer this question about Japan...
Dan: Japan is great. The people are so lovely and so welcoming that you can't not have a good time. It's a different culture, at times a very alien culture, but it's new and interesting going over there. The people are lovely, you can't ask for much more.
Finally, please tell us a little about your upcoming single.
Dan: The single coming out is 'Waiting Game', which is one of the first songs we tackled on the album. From its very first demo form, it's actually change a lot, due to the songwriting process we employed. Actually, at the last minute, we weren't sure that the recording did the song justice, so again, at the eleventh hour, we went into the studio with a guy called Barney, who's worked with The Futureheads, Kasabian...we recorded it live. We thrashed it out three or four times, and that's the version that we've now put on the album - it's a lot more energetic and reflects the live version of the song that we've been doing a lot more. We're very glad we had the courage to do that, and we're hoping that people enjoy it.
'Waiting Game' was released on Monday, with album Make This Your Own to follow on January 22.
Click here for a preview of the album
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