The last time we spoke to Reuben apparently they said a bit too much and it cost them their press company! Oops, sorry guys. Since then they have gone out on their own and set up their own label, so we caught up with them before their recent Manchester gig to get the low down on the new album.
R13: So you've almost sold out this whole tour?
Jamie: Yeah it's alright isn't it? What we do is book really tiny venues so people see we've sold out! Haha.
John: We hadn't released a record for a while so we wanted to test the water a bit. We haven't anything to promote on this tour apart from assessing our fan base so it's really for people that already know Reuben, it's not like we're trying to appeal to a new fan base, it's old fans coming back, which is great to sell out 400 venues.
Jamie: 400 venues?
John: I meant capacity!
Guy: We haven't been out on our own as a headline tour since 2005 for the second album but we got some good offers from some other bands so we just went with it.
R13: Yeah I remember asking you about that last time and you said you liked support slots because it was less work!
Jamie: Yeah well it's like anything, I remember being quite hungry at the end of last year to do some Reuben shows and I really enjoy it now apart from the whole food poisoning aspect to it.
Guy: Yeah he's been wiped out
John: I don't really see him until we play and then he spends the whole time going "I might have to go in a minute!" but he's such a soldier.
R13: Last time we spoke you were talking about doing the new album on your own, which you've obviously done with Hideous Records, so what finally tipped you over the edge to go for that instead of signing with somebody else?
John: We spent so long waiting around for people to get back to us and in the end we just thought "what's the point?". We've got great new stuff and we've got enough money saved up in the account to do it.
Jamie: Now we've spent it all and we owe a lot of money!
Guy: But we could have sat around forever waiting for a record deal you know? We could have got signed straight away but that's not necessarily the best way to go. We're always so involved with every process there is in being in a band and making a record that we might as well do it ourselves! Why have a middle man when we pretty much do it all ourselves anyway? When we were with Xtra Mile we wanted to be as involved as possible so we're happy to do it ourselves.
John: Music's evolving now, record companies are getting like 'sign a band really quickly, don't make any money, drop them!' What's the point getting involved in that?
Jamie: We can always really on us ... apart from Guy! He'll sell us out.
R13: Are you happy with the way the album turned out?
John: Yeah, really, really happy although it hasn't really turned out yet.
R13: It's being mastered?
John: Yeah
Guy: There's more depth to it than previous material, it's not that we had more time in the studio we just did more.
Jamie: It's the least time we had to make a record but it's the most we've packed in. We really did establish a rapport with Sheldon but because we hadn't really worked with him before I think we spent a lot of time acclimatising but with these guys we went straight in, so that sped things up a bit.
John: It's good that we've had a different sounding record each time, producers are obviously a part of that. To have a Sheldon record that sounds expensive is wicked but then to have a record that has a lot more depth, I really like.
Guy: It's good to have three different sounding albums both song-wise and production wise.
R13: You'll be well prepared for all the flack that comes with that this time?
Jamie: I felt that brewing with our second album, people wanted to see if everything was still OK and a lot of people were making their minds up before it came out. I think because people had seen a lot of the creative process through our studio diaries they were a lot more accepting. There will be some surprises.
R13: Well I suppose they've heard some of the material played live, like 'Cities On Fire'?
John: We've got to the point now where what people say does upset us but it's not going to stop us doing anything.
Jamie: Everything you release helps to put it in perspective, so if you were worried that on our last album everything was going a bit pop and a bit simple, you won't be worried about that anymore.
R13: Let's talk about the Wiz (recently deceased Mega City Four front man) tribute gig that you're involved in, it was a big shock for me to find out that he'd died.
Jamie: Yeah we were all shocked.
John: It was while we were doing the record we found out, we didn't know much about MC4 at the time because we were too young but Wiz as a person was always very encouraging and having met Jerry (MC4 bass player) as well there's another connection.
Jamie: It's funny being asked to do that gig because everyone else on that show were their contemporaries and we're really not!
R13: I must admit I was surprised when I saw you were on the list.
Jamie: It's so nice though to know that we've been asked because we were such good friends with Wiz and Jerry.
R13: I think you'll fit in well as there are lots of similarities between what they were doing back then and what you're doing now, plus you'll get to play to a new audience full of old gits!
Jamie: Yeah we'll get bottled!
John: We did play with Neds and that didn't work, it was a weird one as it wasn't well promoted and there weren't as many there as there should have been
Jamie: Neds asked us to play because they like Reuben as well and again we hadn't really heard them.
R13: What's the next single going to be then?
John: Ah I can't tell you that
R13: Haha you see I thought I'd just slip that one in and catch you out.
Jamie: We're holding back on that one but it will be really fucking good!
John: There's absolutely zero pressure on us to go top forty so we just want reasonably good release with a video so people can see it and be aware.
Jamie: Also it will be the first single off the album before anyone's heard anything new apart from the live stuff, it's the first taste of how it sounds sonically as well as musically and it's a really important statement being the first single off your album. I think the song we've chosen is really good.
R13: So you can't tell us what it is but will there be exclusive b-sides?
Jamie: Yeah we try and make all our singles value, so if our fans want to buy the singles that's sweet, especially if they've already bought the album.
John: You know when we were kids we always bought records where we were ripped off with like seven re-mixes and what's the point in that? So we always try to avoid that kind of thing.
Jamie: Or live versions, unless they're really good. We put a couple of live versions out because they were really good and there was a point to it.
R13: Anything else to add?
Guy: Yeah, we're doing a big tour in September!
John: It seems like a long time between tours but it's not really because we'll be doing festivals and probably an in store tour around the time of the single.
R13: Download?
John: I hope so but we've done it two years in a row so we might be pushing our luck!
Guy: I'd love to do it.