What are you up to at the moment? "We did a Lamacq session recently, and that went really well. It’s the first time we’ve done anything like that, five songs in 25 minutes completely live without any break or anything. It was kind of scary." You’ve been getting an increased amount of press recently. Are you feeling the pressure at all? | "It’s like waiting for your school reports at the end of the year, but as long as they’re okay, then we’re not really bothered." | | John on what it feels like to be reviewed |
"Not really, but it’s quite funny waiting for the reviews to come in. It’s like waiting for your school reports at the end of the year, but as long as they’re okay, then we’re not really bothered." Are you happy with the album? "It took a little bit longer to get to the release than we wanted it to, but we’re happy with how it turned out. All the stuff that Dave Sitek (of TV On The Radio, who mixed the album) did with it really tied it all together. It’s the best we could have hoped for." How did you come to work with Dave?
 | | The Longcut |
"I suggested it before we started recording as a joke, because I wasn’t sure if he was producing at the time or if he was still doing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. After we’d finished the album, we decided to get someone else to mix it, because the guys who produced it did a great job but the mixes weren’t quite there. So we sent the stuff over to him and he really liked it. "He knew nothing about us. He hadn’t read any press or heard anything by us, so when he got it, it was really getting a new perspective on it." He’s based in America. Did you go there to mix it with him? "The thing was that we had to listen to his mixes in loads of different places. We had a mad period around Christmas when we played in New York one week, then Japan the next, then Barcelona and then back to the US! We had to try and download the mixes, listen to them and then phone Dave up and tell him where we wanted things changed. "We had to constantly do it though because he has a really old mixing board. Usually you can mix a song and move on, and then come back to the original settings, but his didn’t do that. You had one shot at each song and if you moved it, that was it, you couldn’t come back to it." Is that why the album took longer than expected?
 | | The Longcut |
"Well, it didn’t help, but it’s incredible how much time record companies can add to releasing an album. We actually recorded the album in six weeks and it was done by October last year, but lots of other things conspired to make it take longer. "It’s not a bad thing, but one thing that does annoy us is when people say it’s taken us a long time to do the album. We didn’t really. There are bands that take much longer." Hasn’t that slow build-up worked in your favour though? "We’re always talking about bands that are really disposable and we don’t want to be like that – bands like The Datsuns that have disappeared off the radar. We want it as a long term thing, so when there was hype to begin with, we did take it easier, but the release of the album has taken a little bit too long." You’re coming to the end of your tour. Are you looking forward to coming home for the last date? "Yeah, it’s usually the best date anyway, but this one is doubly good as we’ll be finishing the tour. It always gets a bit mental when we play in Manchester." A Call And Response is out on Deltasonic on Monday 12 June. The Longcut play the Academy 3 on Thursday 25 May. The band are giving away copies of a free limited edition 7" single at the show. | 
