Straight Outta Liverpool Come The Stands PREV / 2 of 3 / NEXT shout, sounds top. Now, from what I gather, All Years Leaving was a long time in the making, taking a while to craft. Was this a result of you trying to create a more studio album, a sonic idea rather than a more live-oriented, raw recording? Complete days on recording and mixing and all was no more than 20 or so days. It was spread out over a few months 'cause, you know, we started before we were with a record company. We were taking the days we could get. It's pretty much as live as you can get--a lot of the vocals and harmony's are live to, sometimes were only using about 6 or 7 mics total. We went into a couple of tunes and added this and that but not that much. That was the idea--to record a band exactly how it sounds at this moment in this room. Being described as a singer/song-writer, Howie, I take it you write the songs. How exactly do you go about doing that? What is the genesis of a song? Take us through a song-writing session if you will. I don't really have a formula or anything like that for writing. I just get things that pop in my head so I write them down or record onto a tape or something. If you could, tell us a bit about the Liverpool's "Scouse" movement. What is the scene looking like these days? I don't really know how to explain this to you--all the bands who were pretty tight around that time weren't the Liverpool scene. We were all the ones who didn't care to be part of anything like that. That's what we had in common--most of us had been in bands together or were good friends before we were in bands. We hung out and played in strange places were they'd let us play Leadbelly songs and stuff. We were having a lot of fun--fun attracts people, I guess, so pretty soon, the strange places were the hip places and, whatya know, we're a scene. Now, Howie, you spent a significant portion of your formative years here in the USA. Do you see a strong American influence on your music? Would you say, overall, your songs have an American or more British sensibility? I started to play guitar in New York and the radio played a huge part in my musical education. In England, it's pretty much chart music all the way on the radio although it's got better over the past few years. Over in New York is where I first heard blues, folk, gospel. The place I spent most time was in Queens--a lot of Cuban music up there. All that stuff goes in. It's gonna come out but still I am from Liverpool and being so gives me certain qualities that go with that so that's gonna change the way I relate to what I hear and see Settling in with The Echo Label was only after a "bidding war." Tell us about how you ended up at Echo. What was it you liked about Echo that had you choose them? By this time, the Coral and the Zutons were at Delta Sonic. The Bandits were spoken for, I think--Well anyhow, arou PREV / 2 of 3 / NEXT