You’re heading out on tour in April – are you looking forward to getting back and playing live again? What’s your favourite song to play live?
I’m looking forward to it, because we haven’t been and done a full tour in a while. For me touring is the best part of being in a band! I always enjoy playing new songs, so I’m looking forward to playing Animal.
You’ve just released your new single Animal as a free download on your website – can you describe it for us?
I really like it – it’s energetic and catchy! It’s just a song you can listen to once and find your foot tapping along to it.
What are your favourite tracks from the new album?
I’d say that Animal is my favourite at the moment, but I think I Won’t Come Back will be my favourite to play live. We have a slower song called Day & Month which (without being slow and boring) breaks the album up really well, so I do really like that one.
What was the inspiration for the title of your new album We Met At Sea?
It’s actually a lyric in the song I Don’t Mind – it just had a good ring to it and we all liked it so we went ahead and named the album after it!
How would you describe your latest album in relation to the previous three?
I’d say that we’ve gone back to our roots – we wanted an album that works just as well live as it does on your iPod, and I think we have achieved that. When we first started out as a band we wrote songs to perform live, so we wanted to be in that frame of mind while we were writing this album. I’d say that if you’ve liked any of our albums you will like this one too.
Which song do you wish you had written?
Hmmm… I’d have to say Hallelujah by Leonard Cohan. It’s an amazing song and has been covered beautifully by Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.
What’s your favourite Pigeon Detectives song and why?
I like all of our songs, but at the moment I would say it’s What Can I Say from our third album Up, Guards & at ‘Em. It starts off really mellow but then it explodes into the middle section – then it mellows off again! We spent a lot of time and put a lot of effort in while we were in the studio to make sure that it sounded as big as possible.
Any advice for new bands who are just starting out?
I always say to bands that they need to play live as often as possible – do as many gigs as you get the chance to because playing live is the main way you’ll get spotted… It worked for us!
What’s been your career highlight so far?
Having a platinum disc and two gold discs hanging on my wall always fills me with a real sense of achievement; put together they are my career highlights.
What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to the band – it could be on tour, in the studio, anything!
Just last week I got to hold the FA Cup (which is worth £21 million) – the amount of history behind that cup is massive so that was pretty strange! One year at Leeds Festival John Paul Jones (the bass player from Led Zeppelin) said ‘that was alright’ after we walked off stage… That was seriously weird! We all love Led Zeppelin.
Describe yourself in three words?
Pigeon Detectives guitarist!
