You recently released your new album Commontime, which has quite a funky feel to it. How did that come about, and are you big funk fans?

Dave and I both like a lot of stuff which could be described as funky. We’re probably a little too particular about it to say we we’re fans of funk as a genre. Throughout our records there’s always been one or two tracks which got a little funky. This time we’ve let it take over a little. I think we just wanted to dance in the studio.

 

Commontime received a lot of good reviews, we assume you were pleased with the reaction? It’s always good when hard work pays off!

Oh yeah, we’re really pleased with the reviews. That’s not the reason we do it of course – we want to please ourselves and each other first – but after that we love it when other people like what we’re doing. There have been a few reviews this time, and not necessarily the best ones, when we’ve thought, ‘yep, they get what we’re trying to do’.

 

When a good rock writer does a good critique on you, that’s a decent pay off for me.

How do you find the writing process? Do you write on the road at all or is it mainly done at home?

Dave and I manage the band on the road so there’s little time for writing. Mainly we write at home and finish things off in the studio. We write quite separately at home and when we get into the studio it’s usually a case of little tweaks and problem solving.

Do you have any plans to release any more music in the near future, or will you be focusing mainly on touring and other things?

We’ve got a nice commission coming up over summer to co-write a score for a film. Along with touring, that’ll take up the whole summer I imagine.

You’re doing a pretty extensive tour of the U.K. and the U.S.A. How different do you think both tours will be in terms of playing gigs and the fans? 

I’m not sure really. It’s been 3 and half years since we toured the UK and over 5 since we toured the U.S. I’m not sure what to expect from either. The U.S. tour will be more difficult. It’s more demanding in lots of different ways.

 

You’re originally from Sunderland, is there anywhere that you especially enjoy playing, and any gigs that particularly stand out for you?

I like playing wherever people really seem like they want to hear us. We’re lucky with the venues and towns that we’re playing this time. I could pick anyone of them from Exeter to Glasgow. Just the thought of going and playing any of those towns is really exciting.