IDLEWILD

IDLEWILD. Protagonists of moody, melodic punk, seismic live shows and err competitive table tennis.

Bizarre, but true according to the band's guitarist Rod Jones.

Whether being handy with a table tennis bat had anything to do with the band's electric fourth studio album Warnings/Promises, Rod is keeping well under wraps. Instead he's putting it down to them just being a good band.

"I think it's the best record we have made," he says with a triumphant glow.

"I was quite surprised the best review it got was in the NME, but that's really good. It's nice to have a pat on the back, but we never read too much into reviews. You get good ones and bad ones and if you read too much into them you'd go mad.

"You have to listen to this album. Whereas before we tried to write a bunch of songs and fit them together as an album, this time we tried to make a coherent record as a whole.

"It's a lot more direct and honest. We tried to make it so there was five personalities playing on it. Keeping it more economical helped us achieve that.

"We have evolved and kept ourselves fresh. Without slagging off our previous records the last one was ambitious. I think some people thought it was us trying to be a stadium band, which I don't think was true. For us it's about making better records.

"Before we hinted at a more melodic sound, but this time we have quite clearly gone in that direction although we still like to make a noise!" Rod says laughing.

The band recorded the album in LA at the same studios The Rolling Stones made their seminal 70s classic Exile on Main Street. Rod admits it was a conscious decision to up sticks to the States to lay down the tracks for their fourth record.

"With this album we realised we had to do something different than just locking ourselves in a country house until we'd finished it like with our previous ones. If something didn't go well we could just go somewhere else to chill. It's definitely a different way of recording an album," admits Rod.

Warnings/Promises has already gone platinum with many now predicting the band could go onto even bigger and better things. Rod isn't one to get carried away with the hype, but does admit the thought of more success is a nice one.

"It's great to see our records doing well and as many people listening to them as there are. At the end of the day though we just want to play as many places as we can. That's been our goal with every record - just for it to allow us to travel the world. We'd love to play somewhere like Russia or Mexico or even China," he fantisises.

In the meantime though Rod is more than content thinking about the band's gig at Southamp-ton's Guildhall on Thursday. And he's just hoping they do enough to win an encore.

"When we play live at any given moment something can happen and invariably does!" he says grinning.

"We have tried to make things as unpredictable as possible. We have 40 songs to pick from so there are plenty of options. Hopefully we'll do enough to win an encore. We have been more structured in the past with our set lists, but this time we want to be different."

Idlewild, Southampton Guildhall. Thursday, 7 April. Doors 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Box office: 023 8063 2601.