CityLife

Brakes find a new gear

THERE was a point - 2001, to be precise - when Turin Brakes appeared to be in Lady Luck's MySpace Top 8. Their debut, The Optimist, sold 200,000 copies and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize but despite this, there was a feeling that they never consolidated the promise shown in the days when they were at the vanguard of the ill-fated New Acoustic movement.

Certainly, the band themselves were fearful that their career was set to crash.

"It was looming over us for a while, that feeling of 'is there a reason to make another Turin Brakes album?'," admits Olly Knights. "I think that fighting spirit of 'No, we're not going to just roll over' is all over our new material."

Their fourth album for Virgin Records, Dark On Fire, represents a creative rebirth. "I think on our last album, we were a little lost,'' admits Knight. "We lost our A&R guy and manager. And we suddenly felt completely alone."

Lead single, Stalker, is indicative of the swagger of the revitalised band, underpinned by a clanging guitar riff. "We wanted to write a demented love song," says Knights, who partners Gale Paridjanian. "And it also came out of a conversation about what a brilliant, clever pop song Every Breath You Take by The Police is."

Attracted

So have Turin Brakes ever attracted any bona-fide psychos? "Gale's surname is Paridjanian," says Knights. "When we started to get known, he was the only guy in the normal phone book with that surname, so it was totally obvious. And he had a strange girl ringing up his parents at two in the morning for a couple of months."

Produced by Ethan Jones (responsible for the Kings Of Leon), Dark On Fire saw Knights and Paridjanian recording with their on-the-road band for the first time. "We knew it was time to do something different," notes Knights. "What's lovely is you suddenly have five people's ideas bouncing off you and it's not just Gale and me sitting staring at each other in a little room."

After an intimate date at Channel M on Saturday, the band will return to play the Academy in October.

"We used to do very dreamy, slow live shows," remembers Knights. "And we've injected a bit of pace, which is partly because of this record but mostly from realising that people go to see bands to be blown away, not softly stroked to sleep."

Turin Brakes play Academy 2 on Tuesday, October 2. £16. Call 0161 832 1111.

Buy their new LP from Amazon.