The biggest crowd-feasers. I mean, there's the obvious ones, you know, I think like half-light and wise of the second record.
A hurricane after the last record goes down really well and you've got the style and all sorts.
To be honest, all of them.
Our set at the moment kind of goes like, greatest hit, greatest hit, new one, that's going to be the greatest hit.
Greatest hit, new one, greatest hit, great hit.
It's just our opinion.
So which is the one you kind of most enjoy playing? What do you really look forward to in your set list?
I think at the moment, like, I really enjoy playing a bunch of the new songs. There's Superhuman Touch and Black Swan Song and The Getaway.
Those three, you know, they're all really good playing those at the moment.
I love playing 24 hours off the second record and shake those windows off the first.
Superhuman!
There is a difference to this album again, you know, we really wanted to push the songwriting so that in a direction where every song you could just play on an acoustic guitar,
the song would come across really well and that's what we wanted to almost get back to in a way.
Just that kind of classic songwriting and that being the most important thing.
Also, I really think, you know, we've always prided ourselves upon being a really good live band
and I don't really feel like we captured that up until this point on the first three records.
You know, I think there's points where you kind of go, yeah, that's the vibe.
But just like listening to a record from start to finish, you almost can imagine a band on stage playing.
When we signed to Parlophone like six, seven years ago, you know, they were the best label.
Actually, it was like eight years ago, wasn't it?
But they really were the best label for bands and I think all that changed a couple of years ago, you know.
It's no secret about the whole kind of the downward turn that EMI kind of suffered.
And I guess kind of we felt like that, really.
In reality, it did affect our last record and we realised quite quickly that the label as a home
was a very different place to what it had been previously.
So to get away from that and find a new home was kind of quite high on the agenda
and so to be now beyond fiction is kind of ideal for us.
I mean, to be honest, fiction probably are the most successful major label for bands at the moment.
So we've gone from one label, Parlophone, which was the best label back then to now.
You know, the new best label in my opinion, you know, and we feel really fortunate that it's really good.
I mean, for me, when I sit down and write songs, I mean, it comes in different ways.
I think like what I always try and aim for is something that just comes really quickly.
And so if there's a melody that, you know, is just making you feel a certain way
and then you manage to grab hold of a couple of lyrics.
If from those few lyrics that are just kind of, you know, in your gut or whatever,
if they kind of make sense to you and so you go, OK, yeah, this song could be about such and such
and you get a really clear directional feeling and emotion about what the song's going to be about,
then a song can come pretty quick and that's really exciting when that happens.
And I think, you know, looking back, I think those songs are usually like the most powerful ones.
I think probably one which is a perfect example is Writers.
And there's a very different kind of story about how that came about.
Tell us a bit about that.
Well, I mean, the story behind that, you know, was about my daughter when she was born
and she was rushed into intensive care on the first night.
She was alive and so it's just about that moment where I had to rush back into hospital.
So like three or four months after that, you know, I just had these calls and these lyrics came out.
Like I say, you got wires, you know, going in, you got wires coming out of your skin.
That line just, I suppose it's in your system, isn't it?
And so that came out and then I kind of knew what the song was about, you know.
So then I was able to just...
None with the rest of it.
It definitely sounds really, really heartfelt.
It felt as a song and I think lots of people sort of identify with it.
And as a result, it's used in almost every sort of medical kind of documentary.
Do you reckon it was kind of an easy song to write or was it hard because of that?
I mean, you kind of see where it's come from but do you find that sort of putting your heart on the page?
It's a bit both, really, yeah.
I mean, in one sense it's easier to write because, you know, like I say, as soon as you know what something is about
and you feel it, you know, it's a lot easier just to, you know, put all those feelings onto paper and into a song.
But then, yeah, I think sometimes, yeah, it takes a little bit more guts to actually bear your soul in that kind of way.
You know, it's hard with that song as well because, you know, around the time that that song was released,
like actually the week that song was released, my wife had a miscarriage
and Tim, our keyboard player, his wife had a miscarriage.
There's this really weird kind of irony to it all, you know.
I don't know, we don't want to get too serious.
But, you know, yeah, it's almost made the song more poignant and more powerful in a way.
Probably improved your performance of it, like?
Absolutely, yeah, man.
Yeah, almost all in tears, like playing that a bunch of times.
So, I mean, you really kind of heartfelt family people.
I mean, going on tour must be quite difficult.
I mean, do your families come on tour with you or when do you kind of get a chance to go and see your families?
Well, we've got a day off in London tomorrow and then a couple of days off, a few days after that, you know.
So, yeah, it's not easy necessarily being away a lot, but you kind of get into a rhythm and a pattern of life, you know.
With emotion, oh, I see these moments in me.
We love you, so when I see you, that's the way to motion.
Tell me, tell me, so, just like you, I love you, it's hard to stop the tears, I still don't know how to feel, it's better to say that you love me.
Do you have any kind of pre or post sort of on state rituals or anything?
Yes, we do.
We kissed the lucky egg, which is Ian, our tour manager's head.
Oh, right.
I was wondering if we could pan over and have a look at Ian's egghead.
There we go.
