6 Music - Music News

London trio White Lies have admitted they are worried that touring commitments will leave them with too little time to make a second album.

The band stormed the charts in January with their number one debut album, To Lose My Life.

"It seemed like, 'It will happen when it happens', but now it seems that it's got to happen in a window of about two months," said bassist Charles Cave.

This month sees the trio back in the UK for another series of live dates.

White Lies played Sheffield last night (24 Nov) and hit Nottingham tonight (25 Nov) and speaking to 6 Music Charles said it will be a little while until they get into the studio because they have booked in gigs in the UK throughout December and in Europe in February.

"That means that we won't be writing until after those shows happen anyway because we're taking January off and going to various places," explained Cave.

He said they'll miss being on the road so plan to put some shows in the diary during the summer, giving them March, April and May to write a follow-up.

Cave was frank about the pressure associated with the fabled 'tricky second album'.

"There's almost so much pressure that you just have to forget about the whole thing and just have loads of fun."

Charles Cave

"There's almost so much pressure that you just have to forget about the whole thing and just have loads of fun," he explained. "At the end of the day, we are in a fantastic position.

"The first album has done well enough that it enables us to be a bit more experimental, and do what we want really, and see where a whole year and half's worth of new music and influences come in to effect."

He revealed they have started work on penning a second album: "We're up to the challenge. We've been working on the lyrics already for a long while and feel very, very happy with four or five, which is half."

However, it could be one of two things when they actually sit down to work on the tunes: "It's either going to be the case of, we'll sit down and there will be so many fantastic ideas we can't control ourselves, or we'll have to teach ourselves how to write music again."

As for its sound, it is too early to tell, added Cave: "We've all brought and listened to more music in this last year than in our entire lives before, just because touring is boring so you buy new music and listen to it, so I think, 'Who knows what will happen?'."