ONE of the country's biggest Indie bands is coming to Wrexham.
As final arrangements are made for the Athlete gig at Central Station next Friday, Leader reporter Mark Taylor speaks to keyboard player Tim Wanstall.
Wrexham will see one of the biggest bands in the country performing live next week, as Athlete's whistle-stop UK tour stops off at Central Station.
The pressures of their longest tour yet haven't quite brought about any Spinal Tap moments, but keyboardist Tim Wanstall is in good spirits as he shoos an unidentified band member away from his CDs as we chat on the phone.
"I haven't had chance to put them on my ipod yet and I can see him looking at them, he's got no chance," he laughs.
The Depford indie act, completed by lead vocalist and guitarist Joel Pott, bassist Carey Willetts, and drummer Stephen Roberts, has recently recruited Jonny Pilcher, of Weevil, as a live guitarist for 34 dates around the UK, previewing material from their upcoming fourth studio album, Black Swan.
It's going well so far, and Wanstall's enthusiasm for music and love of playing is evident as he talks about the current tour.
"We're a couple of shows into the biggest tour we have done and we're really enjoying it," he said.
"After doing big gigs for a few years, you become slightly detached from the audience, so it's refreshing to be back at small venues, reconnecting with our fans, the atmosphere is usually livelier and the sing-alongs seem louder."
Athlete played Central Station almost 10 years ago, when, as unknowns, they opened for Chester's Britpop-era indie heroes, Mansun.
Their unusual sound and energetic live shows were an early sign of big things to come, as heavy radio play and industry awards soon followed.
The intervening years have seen them come almost full circle, as they return to Central Station to play unreleased tracks from their new album, and they are relishing getting back to their roots.
"In some ways this is like a second debut record, moving to a new label has really emphasised that," said Wanstall.
"When we first played Wrexham we were just starting out and it was all new to us, it seemed to happen so fast that one minute we were opening for Mansun and the next minute we're playing arenas with our songs at the top of the charts, so to get back to places like Central Station and really connect with the audience is special."
At the beginning of June they split from their original label EMI and signed to Fiction records, home of The Cure, Ian Brown and Elbow.
Touring while EMI was losing money meant low budget shows, to the extent they couldn't afford to experiment, the stripped back sound borne from necessity fuelled their hunger and drove the direction of the new record.
Wanstall continued: "The last tour in America we had to go for a more acoustic sound.
"Shake Those Windows and Twenty Four Hours (tracks from previous albums Vehicles and Animals and Tourist) really came into their own on that run of gigs, with just an acoustic guitar and a piano, the experience stuck with us as we started writing the songs for the next album. It's a real live sounding record."
"It was interesting to see how a song like Wires (the group's biggest hit, and an Ivor Novello award winner), an arena song, would come across at a more intimate gig, it got a great reaction."
Lead singer Joel Pott has commented on the live shows being central to the recording process this time around, rather than just recording and cutting demos, and Wanstall agrees writing and playing the songs to audiences to gauge their reaction has given them a different take, enabling them to create possibly their strongest material yet.
"It's been very exciting, we didn't bother with demos, we just wrote the songs and played them to the audience, the songs on the album have been chosen on their merits," he says.
Their last album was self-produced, but this time they have got on board super producer, Tom Rothrock, who has worked with some of the biggest artists of the last 15 years, from Beck to Badly Drawn Boy and James Blunt.
"He heard what we were doing and wanted to get involved," Wanstall explained. "He produced part of Beck's Odelay album, and that freshness and innovation is very much in keeping with who we are as a band."
Experimentation has always been something Athlete has embraced, I remember back at the gig all those years ago seeing Wanstall playing a theremin kit attached to his keyboards, I say playing, it must be the only musical instrument you play without touching; moving your hands around the antennas controls the pitch and volume.
It gave them a unique live sound, and while they have pared back the experimental touches, listening to Wanstall talk passionately about their influences from the Flaming Lips to Kraftwerk shows, they haven't completely lost the unconventional streak which has gotten them this far, it's just these shows are more about connecting with the fans again, rather than cramming less emotive, electronically charged touches into the show.
He says they couldn't wait to debut their songs in front of as many people as possible, which is why they have undertaken this mammoth set of gigs, it was about just wanting to get back out there and play for people again.
Wanstall adds: "Playing live is strangely addictive, playing music for people is really special, and these intimate gigs are giving us a big buzz."
What can Wrexham expect from the band this time?
"There's big sing-along moments but also something rawer about these shows, we're not standoffish and whether it's a small gig or a huge festival crowd, we always feel like we're feeding off the audience and that there's an onus on both of us to make the gig something special.
Hopefully people will come knowing it's going to be a great experience and they will get involved."
"It was a special time for us the first time we played here, and we're looking forward to coming back, hopefully the people will come along and we'll make a real night of it."