R13: 'Through The Windowpane' was obviously very commercially and critically successful, did you feel under any pressure to repeat that success?
Greig: No what we wanted to do was to make something completely different from the first record. It would have been a lot easier to make, 'Windowpane' Mark II but we listened to a lot of pop music and it's quite difficult to make a pop song that lasts 2 minutes or 3 and a half minutes; if you have seven minutes it's a lot easier. We set out to make a pop record like that with a lot more upfront rhythms than the first record.
R13: A lot of bands these days find 'pop' a rather dirty word, you're not ashamed to say that you produce pop music?
G: No, we've done well and we're experimental and it's hard to write songs that last 3 and a half minutes. Unless you're talking about Pop Idol - that's a dirty word then - pop's done well and a with the second record lot of people say, "you've sold out", but that's what we do, we're trying to make each record different.
R13: I imagine you've all had different influences on the final record though…
G: Yeah, I spent last year partying but you also get a lot of hours to kill on tour and I had a laptop and was creating a lot of beats. Arista and Fyfe are into R n'B and we started listening to electro stuff. We basically sat in the studio for three weeks and pressed the record button and jammed for three weeks and we had loads of stuff and then we all went away for a week and came back and started to make songs. Every song on the record is different as well to reflect our influences; Arista's more into the jazzy side of things whereas Fyfe and I are quite similar, although he also likes the strings side.
R13: What’s your favourite track on the album then?
G: It keeps changing, but it's currently, 'Big Dog'. It's personal but I think it's quite a groovy, funky tune and the initial rhythm at the start of it is from a bus engine which we recorded when we were mucking about with sounds and we recorded the bus engine and made this sort of rhythm thing. I think that's quite cool but I like the song as well, when it was written Arista was going through hassle with her ex-boyfriend and she came into the rehearsal room and was angry and upset and Fyfe wrote the lyrics around that, so it's quite a spontaneous sound written around that straight away.
R13: You must be close friends if you share your emotions like that and build them into songs?
G: Yeah, it's quite weird; on paper we're all very different. We're different ages and from different parts of the country and into different music but there's just a bond there. We've been together for 4 years and touring for 3 and a half, but it just seems to work, you know when things are going well or not so well with someone. We're close but there are moments when people are tired or hungover or whatever…the first year was hardest because we didn't know each other so well but you learn. When you get a day off on tour you can just spend it by yourself, as you don't get much space on the bus and you just want silence, but usually we go out for a meal at night together.
R13: What do you do to unwind on tour then?
G: I used to party a lot, not all the time because before you know it when you're partying all the time you just start to feel like complete shit and you're sitting there at 5am and it was fun but we felt like shit and there was no excitement left. So to unwind if I get a day off I might just get totally mashed and spent all day in bed in a hotel but we were in Germany last month and there was some really nice whether and we found that they had really nice outdoor pools so we were all swimming before and after soundcheck. We felt like a gang or something in the pool, so we tend to do that and have competitions for who can do a handstand for the longest and stuff. Fyfe does a lot of walking too, exercising is good like that, or even yoga; I bought a yoga mat but I still haven't got around to using it.
R13: How is the tour going in general then?
G: It's going really well. We've got the set working now and we're really enjoying it. It took a few gigs to get the structure of the set worked out as we had a mix of old and new songs but everyone's really into jumping around the losing themselves, it's great to see that. When we only had the one album we used to play a lot of b-sides as well but now we've got a choice of songs and it's great to see people singing lyrics from the new album. It's really crazy too, you look at the front row and the age difference between people is crazy, there are 14 year olds in the front row standing by guys of 50 and they're all singing the lyrics. And we're back as a four-piece as well, like when we first started, which has been great.
R13: What would you say is the band's appeal that you attract such a wide audience?
G: We're not very cool; we're not the cool kids and we're not really NME material. You get indie kids at the front as well, and couples and people who say they're getting married to 'Made-Up Love Song' and girls there for Fyfe saying how romantic his lyrics are…I don't know what a Guillemots fan would be…We knew this album would alienate some of the people who were into 'Windowpane', the older people who were into folk ballads, and there was a chance that they wouldn't like the new record but it's the record we wanted to make.
R13:You're supporting REM later this summer, are you nervous about that?
G: More nervous about playing stadiums. We've played a few arenas, we supported Snow Patrol in Wembley and toured with Scissor Sisters, but it's also hard as it's not your own gig and you're so far away. The size of the venue is quite daunting, although I'm definitely looking forward to it, but we'll be playing while people are eating their burgers and stuff - we'll see how it goes!
R13:Do you feel the same about playing festivals like Wireless then?
G: We played the Pyramid Stage last year at Glastonbury and you're miles away there but you kind of get less nervous as you can't meet people's eyes. Wireless has a great line up with Morrissey and Beck and Siouxsie, it's going to be great - you're spoilt for choice that day anyway. I was thinking about looking for Morrissey back stage but I suppose he'll probably fly in in a helicopter or something.
R13: I hope not, you'd like to hope he was backstage as he picked a lot of the line-up
G: He's someone that you might not want to approach though, what would you say to him? You'd say, "Hi Morrissey, I really love your songs" and he'd say, "Go away, little boy!" or something like that.
R13: Do you think it would be a let-down to actually meet people that you might call inspirational then?
G: I think you shouldn't meet your heroes on balance; it could be bad if they're in a bad mood and say something horrible and you wouldn't be able to listen to their music again. I met Terry Hall at Latitude a couple of years back and he was sitting by himself with a cup of tea and a cigarette and I walked past and he looked quite miserable and I was going to stop and say, "Hi Terry, I think you're very special" but I didn't because I thought that if he told me to fuck off, I'd be heartbroken and how could I listen to a Specials record again?!
R13:Does that make you conscious of how your should treat your fans?
G: I don't get a lot of fans, mainly Fyfe gets it but I'm nice most of the time anyway, I sign things for people. There are times when I'm massively hungover and would find rather not be approached but I'm generally nice!