QTheMusic.com

It's been eight years since their debut Asleep In The Back first hit our stereos. In that time Elbow have gone from being another indie band amongst many to household names, Mercury Prize winners and darlings of the music and populist press.

To celebrate the new deluxe edition of their debut release Q spoke to guitarist Mark Potter about the once aborted album as well as asking whatever happened to Elle and Bo? The figures on follow-up Cast Of Thousands cover that once sparked reports of alien sightings off the M1.

Asleep In The Back will soon get a deluxe release. I fell in love with your debut album while studying photography at University. Is it the best album ever for darkrooms?

Having listened to Asleep quite recently I was surprised at how dark some of the material on it is, we wrote some very serious songs for such happy young men. The album, as most debuts are, is a collection of our best songs written over quite a few years mostly spent in dark dingy carpeted rooms, buzzing with ambition and maturing as musicians, this is perhaps why as a listening experience it works in such a confined low lit environment..... or maybe it's just great stoner music.

Does the album's notoriety (thus the deluxe release) make up for all the extra struggle that came with you being dropped from Island Records prior to what was supposed to be your debut album?

At the time we were devastated to be dropped by Island, but on reflection we were very lucky to have two attempts at our debut. All the songs evolved a lot second time round because we had the opportunity to experiment and have fun with them in the studio. Having already recorded them once quite conventionally, there was a very relaxed 'throw it at the wall' attitude which was inspired by Ben Hillier, the new producer, who became a good friend and also worked on Cast of Thousands.

The deluxe release means a lot to us because along with the additional versions of the songs it includes all the visuals created by the amazing 'Soup Collective' .These interpretations of the songs were projected at our live shows and along with the music evolved every night on tour as they gathered more and more interesting footage. This marked the beginning of a very close working relationship that was at its most creative during the writing and recording of 'Leaders of the Free World' the results of which can be seen in the DVD which accompanied that release.

How is the new album coming along? Can we expect more orchestral arrangements now that the Live at Abbey Road version of The Seldom Seen Kid proved such a success?

We never really stop writing songs and getting new ideas down no matter how basic or incomplete. Being on the road leaves you with a lot of time to kill and after the novelty of constant partying wore off a little bit, we decided it was time best spent getting creative. This is great because we are officially back in our studio in Salford this week and the first extremely enjoyable task was to listen to everything we'd written and recorded on the road over the last two years. There were close to 40 fresh ideas which we whittled down to around fifteen potentially great tunes, a great place to be in when starting a new record.

Abbey Road was a dream come true for us and is something we are all immensely proud of. I think that the way we write songs lends itself to classical orchestration and instrumentation but at every stage of the creative process we are very careful not to overuse things just because we can.

What's the latest news on Elle and Bo?
I think a fan has them in their back garden. We auctioned them off on ebay for charity a few years ago.

Seeing how you're not considered as the chirpiest of bands, would you consider appearing on Sesame Street to prove you've got a childish side, and if yes, which song would you want to play?

I'd definitely be up for it. My wife is American so I'd have to get involved as it's a big part of her childhood, also most of the band have kids now so it would be great for them to see their dads hanging out with Big Bird and co. My song suggestion would have to be Flying Dream the last song on Cast of Thousands it's a dreamy bouncy little number that I can imagine working well with a bizarre Sesame Street sequence.

Do you feel the decision to award Speech Debelle this year's Mercury is a worthy successor to you?

I was very surprised at this year's Mercury winner, but it is important to recognize and encourage young talent... it's just a shame that she didn't get the same level of exposure that we were lucky enough to receive.

You've been labeled as arty, miserablists, sentimentalists and have been favourites of intellectuals for a decade, at the same time receiving glowing reviews in The Sun. Are you more content drinking wine at a gallery opening or chugging a pint in your local?

Definitely pint chuggers for life! You have to keep it real....

One critic coined you as "innovative, sentimental rock". Which is more important to you, to inspire creativity in your listeners or to evoke memories?

Music is a very powerful art form. It moves people, inspires whole generations, helps some people through unthinkable tragedy and can save lives [R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts for example].

It seems that people are very touched by the songs we write which I put down to how much we care about what we do, alongside guys very sincere and heartfelt lyrics. We've been approached many times and have been told how one of our songs or albums has influenced someone's life so significantly that in our opinion the songs no longer belong to us. It's this feedback from our fans this gives us as artists a responsibility to improve, innovate and continue to write original honest music that will hopefully continue to both inspire and become a part of people's memories.

Questions: Brand Barstein.

11:21 AM | 06/11/2009