You worked with Peter Miles again on this record, so with that in mind what is it love so much about working with him, and what does he bring to the recording process? Barney - One thing that we've been totally happy with over the previous couple of records was the recording of them and therefore Pete. We've become so perfectly comfortable with him that we knew that all we needed was more time to complete the ideas we had together over the last few albums. There were so many times where we went halfway with ideas like speeding up the drums after recording them at a slower tempo to make them sound like loops on the previous albums. We wanted to take that to an extreme this time. This time we afforded ourselves more time in the studio by having more preparation completed outside of it so we could really go to town on the guitars, drums and vocals, layering on harmonies and getting that perfect take with Pete. Pete's got a great set of ears, he really contributes to the process and innovates with us and understands where we're coming from. He really has become the sixth member of the band in terms of the recording process.
What has the experience been like for you guys leading up to the release of this record? I mean is it maybe a manic process and you feel a bit of relief when you get the record out there, or is it something entirely different for you? Laila - Pre-release, this album has required a lot of patience! We've been sitting on it for a year now but we decided with this record we wanted new management, a label, press agent, the full shebang so it all took a lot of time. It's a huge relief to finally get it out and it's exciting to read the good reviews and hear ourselves on the radio and see ourselves on TV and all that. The build up over the last few months has been insane though! Barney and I have found ourselves frequently running around London/Manchester doing press, radio shows on a regular basis but it's great because as a band you want to be busy promoting the thing that is of most importance to you, and that's this album and of course us the band. Manic is good, it means people want to know!
How would you say your sound as a band has progressed or changed over the years? Barney - It's just been a very natural progression. If you listen to our early material it’s us in a garage playing as a punk band and literally simulating the beats and synths we heard in dance music with guitars, drums and bass. As we got older and more experienced with audio production, we learnt to incorporate different technology into our sound to make something truly original. If you listen to ‘Danger Danger’ off our first album, then ‘Arcade Perfect’ on our second, then ‘The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Inventions’ off our third and finally ‘Karma is a Bitch’ off our new album, you can literally hear us progressing across the years in our attempt to make that mix of rock and dance work for us. It's us starting off as a rock band struggling to emulate a drum n bass style and ending up with what we feel is the right blend of rock and dance for this band on the new album. It’s what we were always going for, but anything worth doing is worth doing right, and that took time!
How did you guys end up working with Reel Big Fish on the track 'Hiding In My Headphones' and how was this whole experience for you? Laila - We've been really good friends with Aaron since we toured with them a few years back. As soon as we met them at Slam Dunk in 2007 we totally hit it off. They asked me to sing 'She Has a Girlfriend Now' and it's kind of become a little tradition that I sing it every time I'm at one of their shows. We recorded an acoustic version of that and it really didn't work out too well, we really need to be on something geared towards Sonic Boom Six because our style is so unique. So, when they were recording a new album Aaron sent us literally just an idea for a reggae tune a few months back. We knew the speed and feel and the chords and chorus were there so we just had fun over it... Barney and I laid down some raps and a chorus but the song was nothing like it was now. It's the most organic and fun way we've done a tune, normally a band will tell you exactly what to do, here we just had a a couple of directions. A few months later we heard it and it had been completely fleshed out and the structure was totally different, all the parts were in different places and Coolie Ranx was on there too... it's almost like a dub remix of the tune we thought it was going to be. But, because of the theme of the song, that live dubby remix feel really works. It's like RBF are opening up their headphones to you. They're such a fun band and a band that I have total respect for.
What does 2013 hold for Sonic Boom Six? Laila - 2013 is going to be the year for us, I can totally feel it. We'll have a couple more singles and videos off the album coming out. We head out on tour with The Blackout around the UK at the end of January, there's talk of an American tour when the album comes out there in March and then world domination!