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Q spoke to Charles Cave, bassist and lyricist with White Lies, before the band's storming headline set on the first night of The Awards - The Gigs. Read on for tales of hob nobbing with Mischa Barton, being nominated for a Q Award and drinking with Kings Of Leon.

On being nominated for a Q Award:

It's great. We're up against a lot of very accomplished musicians and it feels great to be alongside them. We've won a Mojo Award but apart from that we've not been nominated for many! If we didn't win, I'd love Friendly Fires to get it. As much as I like their music, I'm really saying that on a friendship level. They're just really great guys. We've toured with them three times and they're really, really great people to be around and really hard-working. It's very easy to be lazy as a musician but they work really hard. Just like us!

On playing the Q Awards: The Gigs first night:

We're really jet lagged but this is the first headline show where we've had full control of production and lighting. It's our first significant headline show. We're leaving tonight to go to Holland and then the European tour kicks off. There'll be the UK tour after that. Tonight will be a great show. I got goosebumps when we arrived. We're playing two songs we've never played before live so that'll keep us on our toes. Tommy and I will do some press-ups before we play, so that'll wake us up!

On touring with Coldplay and Kings Of Leon:

We didn't really see Coldplay. They picked us but they fly home after every show, no matter where it is. Kings Of Leon were the nicest guys and I think we're at a start of a long friendship with them. I think they were real wildmen but they've been calmed down a bit by Europe. That's not necessarily a bad thing! They're still up for a good time, they're tough guys but sweethearts too.

On their rider:

We're not usually a booze band but on the Kings Of Leon tour we were. The other two are pretty into Jamesons. When we're playing gigs, I'll go for red wine or really strong Belgium beer. Kings Of Leon are really into their tequila. I'm not quite sure we could do that.

On being famous in...Poland?!:

We've only played one show there and we had a really traumatic time getting to the festival - our bus broke down on the motorway for four hours and we genuinely didn't think we would make the gig. But we thought well, we've never played Poland before and the record hasn't really sold so it won't matter anyway. Eventually we made it and it was probably the best show we've ever played. There was 14,000 people there!

On writing the second album:

I've been working on the lyrics but we're kind of holding back. We've got this slightly naïve hope that when we have the chance we'll sit down and everything will magically flow out. We did the first album in two sections of about a month and a half. That wasn't even that hardcore. If we really get our heads down, that's the best way to write an album for us. Writing about touring is weird, we wouldn't do that. I don't understand how bands do that.

On a summer of festivals:

It's weird with festivals. It's surprising how the weather effects the gig. We played T In The Park and the sun was blazing. It was very odd to be playing our songs in that environment. Playing a venue like this there's so much control over the conditions. We do change our set at festivals on the fly to cater with crowds. The festival season is fun but it is a necessary evil in some ways. There's so many these days that you're just jumping from country to country non-stop. But hey, it's fun!

On coming home:

In the last year we've had a maximum of four weeks at home. The worst is post - just piles and piles of crap from the bank. Most of my time at home is spent recycling and looking at my ever-increasing phone bills! When I'm home I'm just lazy and restless, itchy to get out on tour again. It's amazing how you get home and suddenly descend into just sitting around and you think, you know what? This is what I do on tour anyway!

On being star struck:

I was in New York recently and got taken by a friend to a really small club. Mischa Barton and Kirsten Dunst were just sitting there and I thought, what am I doing here? Why did they let a loser like me in here?

On filming in Russia:

When we went to Russia to film Farewell To The Fairground video, it was genuinely painful to be outside. I keep telling everyone whenever they complain about being cold, I just don't feel cold anymore. We just stood there looking around and realising, this is the kind of stupid stuff bands' think is cool!

1:35 PM | 20/10/2009