6 Music - Music News

They have already pushed the album back once, but UNKLE are now on target to releasing their next record, Where Did The Night Fall, by summer.

Once again, James Lavelle has teamed up with Pablo Clements from the Psychonauts, with whom he released End Titles...Stories for Film in 2008.

Bands such as Sleepy Sun and Autolux feature on this album and James Lavelle admits he scored big by getting American singer-songwriter Mark Lanegan on board.

"For me, it is a personal dream come true," he said. "He[Lanegan] was meant to be on War Stories and for various reasons at the time it didn’t work out. He’s one of my favourite singers ever and to work with him was just amazing."

With Pablo adding: "Lanegan’s great because you don’t have to worry about Lanegan. He’ll deliver one vocal and it will be blinding."

'More electronic'

6 Music caught up with the pair in the studio as they were mixing Where Did the Night Fall and Lavelle admitted their sense of time has been skewed, but things are on track for a May release.

"It’s 2010 and we were hoping to start with a finished record, and we haven’t. It’s weird, it doesn’t feel like the beginning of the year yet," he laughed. "It’s got to be mastered next week otherwise we’re just not going to get it out in the timeframe we need to. It’s been an interesting experience but they always are."

"It's got to be mastered next week otherwise we're just not going to get it out in the timeframe we need to."
 
James Lavelle

We may have already had three full-length studio albums and the film-inspired fourth offering under the UNKLE banner, but James claims it’s just the beginning.

"For me it feels like we’ve just actually started," he explained. "From War Stories onwards, having the studio being completely focussed on making music - rather than for me in the past signing bands or whatever - it’s just a different experience.

"Actually I think we are more confident and aware and are technically able to do what we do. Hopefully people will enjoy this record. It’s different from the last one, it’s a bit more electronic."

Touring plans

For fans hoping to catch them live, the band have confirmed they will hit the road in May.

"We intend to tour as much as we possibly can but we’ve got to change the show a little bit," said Lavelle.

There were 14 crew members on tour with them last time, which they admitted was very costly, so this time they will be scaling down their show in some countries.

"We’re looking at a couple of different angles where we can tour in America and make it more economic," revealed James. "Then we can do bigger shows where we will hopefully do your Brixton’s or your Somerset House’s."