Hard-Fi: A welcome return to live action

The final notes have been recorded and mixed, so Hard-Fi came into our session itching to play live and show off their new songs from Once Upon A Time In The West, as well as a few favourites from the past.

When you've recorded an album in various bedrooms, a disused mini-cab office and event the back of car, you might think that the plush surroundings of a dedicated studio would be a joy but after many, many months of work recording and mixing new album Once Upon A Time In The West, Richard, Ross, Kai and Steve are simply itching to get out on the road again. "It's all about playing stuff live, that's the most exciting part for me," says Kai.

Nominations for a Mercury Music Prize and two Brit Awards and the stunning success of debut album Stars Of CCTV and singles such as Cash Machine hasn't taken the edge off of the band: "We're still hungry, we want more, we want to go to Wembley Stadium. Hopefully, that was just the start of things," says Ross.

That success hasn't changed them much in any way as Richard explains: "I still live in the same house in the same town. I see my friends still living the same lives with the same problems...you've got to write from your heart, capture another moment. This record again deals with a variety of issues - loss, breakdown in relationships and how you relate with someone. Stuff that you see around you every day, stuff that you feel." For the full interview with Richard and Steve, watch our Behind The Scenes video feature.

Some things have changed though. "We've really grown as a band since the last Session. We've just been touring kind of relentlessly. As musicians, I think we've got massively better. We've seen a lot of the world, it's just been an amazing, amazing experience," says Ross.

Picking songs from new album Once Upon A Time In The West to play for this Session proved tricky, as favourite status keeps moving from one to another, according to Kai it should be first single Suburban Knights or Can't Get Along but for Ross it's I Shall Overcome: "It's got my beat guitar solo, it's got everything, it's cool and I love it," he says. Both got their way for part one of the Session - part two will be online at the end of the month - as we bring you exclusive versions of Suburban Knights, I Shall Overcome and Tonight.

Plotting their course carefully means that the band were keen to keep control over the second album and so despite fulsome praise from the man himself, the opportunity to pull in super-producer Rick Rubin wasn't considered as he can't cook but more importantly: "We weren't ready to give up the kind of control we're used to," says Steve. "Yeah, it's hard to meet your hero and go 'that's not how I want it done' and then you either have to go with it or fall out with him," says Richard.

That sense of purpose and control has produced the goods though. "This album's got 11 tracks on it, this album's got 11 singles on it. We could put out any of those tracks as singles, they're all good enough," says Richard.

Hard-Fi's future may be unwritten but things are certainly looking bright: Richard summarises: "It's weird, we've been in the studio making this record and been in there six months, six days a week, 12 hours a day and you get to the stage where you don't know if what you're doing is good anymore. So, when you finally step back from it, you're going 'this is really great'. And there's a buzz about this album, anything could happen..."

Hard-Fi: A welcome return to live action

Once Upon A Time In The West is released in September, single Suburban Knights is out now.

- Download Hard-Fi with iTunes
- Buy Hard-Fi on CD from Amazon
- Visit the band's official website
- Search the web for more on Hard-Fi

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