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On the songs where you're feeding instrumentals to guest vocalists, how soon do you know who you're writing for?

ED SIMONS: It's very different every time. There are pieces that we feel like we want a vocal on, and then we rack our brains to think of someone. Very rarely do we approach someone and write music specifically for them. We were very keen to work with Willy Mason and Tom sent him something that he'd been working on, then [Mason] sent back a song he'd been working on. We took the song that he gave us and wrote some music back around that. But with Midlake, we sent them a pretty fully formed idea and they came back with a pretty fully formed vocal. Ali Love came in with sort of a sketch and an idea, and the three of us worked it out during the couple days he spent with us.

That's kind of our ideal collaboration—people coming in with an idea, and then the three of us—or whoever else is involved—producing and writing together. We had a great day with the Klaxons, who came in mid-tour on a Sunday, and we had a day to do it. It was great. It was fun. They didn't really have much when they came in, but by the end of the day we had this fully formed thing. They were very on it and very quick. That's the joy of collaborating. People debate how many vocalists we have and stuff like that, but it’s still fun for us to meet new people and have them in the studio. That makes for great records.

Are there songs that are obligatory in your setlists? Do you have to play "Block Rockin' Beats" when you come to the States?

TOM ROWLANDS: We haven't been playing it all summer, we didn't play it in England this whole tour. But we started playing it just before we came to America, and we play it in America—which is probably a wise thing. [laughs]

ED SIMONS: They're not quite obligatory—we feel lucky [to play them]. "Under the Influence" has pretty much been a staple, both DJing and live. It has a really amazing effect on a crowd of people. It was never a single, but it's almost the anthem of us playing live. But we're very intent on playing new tracks. A lot of it is made for playing live, it just fills a room. I think it's a trap if you've been around a long time to just rely on the old ones. We had a tour where we were playing a lot of old records, but now we kind of concentrate on the last two records.

You had another festival-heavy summer. Fans know what makes a festival work for them, but what makes it enticing for headliners?

TOM ROWLANDS: Catering. [laughs]

ED SIMONS: The scenery. Glastonbury. Coachella, as you know, is quite an amazing place to be. Some sort of spirit—a tradition, a sense of history feels good about a festival.

TOM ROWLANDS: It's best if people have to travel to it, if you have to step outside, if you have to make a commitment to go to it. There's no escape—you're here. That puts people in a different mindset. At Glastonbury, you see people step out of their normal lives and live completely differently.

There seems like there's a recurring theme with electronic artists that when the artist got into the music, it was something completely fresh—in some cases, even something illegal. But it's hard to imagine that being the case anymore. Electronic music and house music is much more a part of pop culture now. Does that automatically mean that it loses some of its luster?
ED SIMONS: There's nothing like something being new to make it good. House music has been going for 20 years, but still there's always a new set of kids coming, and it is new to them. And there's a new set of producers, and what they do feels new. In London, I think it's kind of less commercial than it was—it's kind of an underground thing again to go out and dance all night. But really, my clubbing days are pretty much over, so I'm the wrong man to talk to. But when we DJ clubs now, they're a zillion times better equipped with sound and lights. That all adds to the experience.

—Adam McKibbin
11.26.07

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