“One of the reasons we’ve stuck around for so long is the fact that we haven’t lived in each others pockets. We make a record, or we’re in the studio and we go home. Tim lives in LA, I live in Ireland, a couple live in Manchester and Staffordshire, we don’t spend every waking second with each other, so we’ve always got new ideas and we always want our fans to love them. The main thing though is we still enjoy each others company. It’s a bit of a gang mentality. We are still a gang”.

It looks like one of the keys for success then is how strong their relationships are. With the move of Tim Burgess to La though, one wonders is it easy to get everyone in once place to record an album and are the band dynamics evolving?

“Yeah its fine, Albums are always a mixed things to do. Sometimes you can fall out. Very rarely we fall out but sometimes the style of the album, you disagree with the ways its going. You want to pull it this way but once it’s finished we’re always in agreement that it’s a good thing. We also don’t get any pressure from outside influences which help. They wouldn’t, I don’t think they could! The most important thing is to make the album for you. The only pressure that you get is the pressure you give yourself. You want it to be accepted. When we write it’s in groups, one person, two people together and then we come together, the five of us. We’ve got our own studio up north which helps".

Discussing with Tony, that with new ideas comes risk and having faced criticism in the past over their exploration into different genres, do they worry about what their fans will think of new material and do they think that their style has progressed over the years.

“Dunno, it’s probably got worse (laughs) we’ve tried a few different styles and some have been successful and some have been debatable, where the fans haven’t exactly liked then. What we’ve found about it is after a year of releasing it, whereas the initial reaction was probably “oh I don’t like this style” a year later its “oh yeah I love it it’s my favourite record “, and then we bring the next new record out and they’re like “its crap compared to the last one”. You can’t win! I think we have progressed; everyone is in control of their own instruments. I’d like to think that we’re getting better still. We’re still learning, finding bits of music that we’ve never heard before, all be it strange genres, strange styles that you can still get inspiration from”

Having been going strong for a while and still touring on a regular basis from intimate venues to Wembley I ask Tony, do nerves still come into play before a gig or is it par for the course.

“Definitely, the first reaction is a bit of fear. Are they going to like this song? It is scary though, although I don’t get butterflies now before I go on; it’s when I set foot on the stage. (Laughing) You get them when you look at the set list and think of my god how does that go? We did a song last night ‘can’t even be bothered’ and I just froze and thought how the bloody hell does that go? And I thought I hope I don’t start it, I was sitting there, and Mark started it, and I thought ah great! And then it comes back to you”

Not needing major record company approval for their releases, working from their own schedule and in the process of releasing another album I’m told “we’ve done the record company thing and we’re not really that bothered about majors. We may even create our own record company, we don’t need them!”

So alongside possibilities of their own label and lucky enough not to need major label support, they've also sent a few ripples out in the industry when they made their album “You Cross My Path” available as a free digital download “The last record, we gave it away for free and that worked for us. A lot of people said that was mad, what you doing that for, that it devalues music but it doesn’t. It was important for us to get it out. Why not just give it away?”

For now then, The Charlatans are content enough being masters of their own destinies, happy enough to have their music out there and easily accessible, still intent on enjoying touring and making music together, it looks like we’ve a lot more to expect from them in the future.

“The day we wake up and decide we can’t be bothered to is the day we should pack it in”.

On 1 June 2010, the band announced details of their eleventh studio album, 'Who We Touch', which will be released in September 2010. The first single has just been released from the album 'Love is Ending'. Watch out for the review in the next edition of Fd2d.

Words by Raegan Oates

Photo by Amy Brammall http://www.amybrammall.com/