James Righton

“We want our audience to enjoy themselves, we want every gig to feel like an event - of course there are musical elements of rave to our sound, but we wouldn't strictly classify ourselves as that.”

“I've always been attracted to odd chord changes and interesting melodies.”

“We didn't want to be another post-Libertines band singing about London and playing chords.”

“When you're growing up you also like to go out and party a lot, and the music that we would hear going out would be techno and electronica. And earlier stuff like the Prodigy. It kind of stood out from everything else. Y'know, 'Firestarter,' where did that come out of? It sounded alien and otherworldly.”

“All of our albums are actually pretty similar, it's just the production that's different. Our songwriting is always the same.”

“When you're in your twenties and starting out, the problem is that you care about being cool. Being older, I can care less about being cool, which is a liberating feeling.”

“We've never been ashamed of the fact we are, first and foremost, a pop band.”

“With the second record there's a need to show that we weren't chancers, that we could play our instruments.”

“I think the best pop is always subversive in its nature.”

“Tom Rowlands does not rush a record.”

“There's a lot of crowd interaction at our shows. If they're giving off good vibes, we'll give good vibes.”

“I just fell in love with someone who happens to be amazing. We had a beautiful wedding and there was a lot of love.”

“The elements of rave that we try to incorporate are the fun aspects.”

“There's a few bands that I always read about that complain about everything: the travel, the fans... you know they could be working a 9-to-5 job. They should get out if they don't like it. They should just get out. It's quite easy.”

“I always liked music that was melodic, but that had something a bit more wonky and odd going on too.”

“I've learnt to control worry, control doubt, control my inner Virgo.”

“There are so many bands that after their second record are headlining music festivals, and they're still... suited to playing in a tent. Very few bands when they headline a festival can pull it off.”

“People in bands should have a responsibility not to moan, not to complain about being in bands. Things could be a lot worse, you know?”

“It's really important to push things as hard as you can but also remember who you are.”

“There was a lack of inspiration in London. There were a lot of dregs of the Libertines' movement, and we didn't want to do that. We wanted big melodies and hooks, organic melodies that could fall apart at any moment.”