Stylistically, it's the same. We always try to throw something out there, just to see if we can get away with it. If there's a concept record in this band's future, people will have seen it coming because there's always a song on a record that doesn't quite fit.

The one that's on this record is called 'Believer'. It's a really cool song. I wrote the guitar riff just sitting in my studio at home. I put the riffs down on a CD and sent it to Brad just to see what he'd think about it.

He's either gonna like it or he's not. I sent it to him the first time, and he said "What do you want me to do with this?" So, I took the CD, because I believed in it, and took the song back to his house and let the CD sit on his desk.

He didn't listen to it, so I put it in his iTunes. After about 6 months, we played it and it got into his head. He wrote lyrics to it and it became a song on the record. That probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't push for it.

-Do you write much on tour, or is it more of a cycle?

Yeah. If you write on the road, it all tends to be about being on the road, so we really just needed to not do that this time. We typically take some time off, clear our heads, then get together and write.

-Are you planning to come back to the UK once the album's released?

February, it'll be a proper tour. This tour here, the record was supposed to be out by now.

-Yeah, I read that it was meant to be out in February?

Foo Fighters album was out. Can't hang with them! That wasn't the only reason, but we pushed the record back to July 17th. You've got to give those guys respect!

-Absolutely. Are they an influence on you as a band, or just someone you admire?

I admire the fact that Dave Grohl is able to go from Nirvana, because that was something.

To recover from that devastation, to come back and do another band, to become probably as popular, in some places in the world, as Nirvana was, as a front-man and guitar player, singing rock 'n roll songs.

That's f****** impressive! I'd like to shake his hand.

-Do you have any festival dates planned either here or in the States over summer?

We just did the festival run in Europe. We've never done a festival in the UK. I don't know why, but we never have. We'd like to finally do one.

-How have you found fan-reaction to the recent singles?

They dig it. 'When You're Young' sounds a lot like "Here Without You', the opening riff. We kinda did it on purpose. That song was written with us by another guy, by a songwriter.

He was asked to come to the table with some ideas. He came to the table with a song based off all our other songs. So, it does sound like another 3 Doors Down song, but f*** it.

Once you get passed that it's a different song. I think when people first hear it live, they think it's 'Here Without You'. Then they realise it's another song, and they don't know that song yet. We're dealing with that, but we'll keep playing it.

-Was that the first time you've had someone from outside coming in? How was it working with someone else?

It was cool, man. We were looking for fresh ideas, instead of the same things we were doing.

You get to see how other songwriters work, and we got some good songs out of it. We've written 60, 70 songs as a band, and we're tired!

-Was that something the band decided, or was it a push from the label?

No, it more of a push from the manager. At first we were like, no way, f*** that, we're doing it ourselves!

Then he said...well, what's it going to hurt to try? Then we wrote that first song 'When You're Young', and it's such a good song.

-Some bands don't get a lot of control from the label in terms of singles. Do you get forced into any decisions?

No. I'm not going to say that hasn't happened, in the past, but our label has been really good about being democratic.

They let everyone have the say, and make the decisions based on every opinion. They might say 'Well, we don't agree', but they'll never tell us no.

-Moving to the live show, which obviously includes songs like 'Here Without You' and 'Kryptonite'. Does playing the hits ever get tiring?

No, man, because the crowd makes it new every time. You'll see people crying, people enjoying it.

There's always something different for us to see when we're playing them. I never get tired of them.

-What are the band's plans for the rest of the year?

The record comes out July 19th, we start touring in September. We're trying to go with Seether, in the States and over here too.

-What final message would you leave to fans reading this?

Number one, thank you for continuing to come back and see us, because they don't have to. They could go somewhere else, there are plenty of other bands to go and see.

Thank you for that, and thanks for listening to our music. I hope you enjoy the new record

Female First - Alistair McGeorge