Brakesbrakesbrakes

"We are fundamentally responsible for the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, yes," say Brakes. "If it hadn't been for our 5-second epic song "Cheney" (lyrics: "Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, stop being such a Dick"), then it is without a doubt that McCain would've won, and died, and Sarah Palin would have become President and Ruler of the Known Universe by April 2009. We would've been releasing our new album "Touchdown" into a world in the grip of a nuclear winter, with no electricity for people to listen to the CD, and no Internet for them to download it from. We would still have toured it, though," they all agree, nodding their heads, "on acoustic guitars and a drum kit pushed in shopping trolleys. We have built up a live reputation over the past 6 years and nearly 1000 gigs. Yes, even in a world destroyed by the total collapse of reason, we would've toured our music."

In November 2007, after 5 years of near constant touring, Brakes said "We are hellishly close to collapse from nervous exhaustion," and despite that, went to a small barn in Oxfordshire, and spent a week waking up beside each other on the floor in -7c temperatures, to spend their waking hours recording new tracks. They finished the week with a gig at bath Moles club and then shook hands and promised themselves some time off.

Then, their new label Fat Cat booked them into the Glasgow super studio ¬Chem 19, with The Delgados' Paul Savage at the helm. They recorded and mixed the album in a month, then flew to upstate New York to master it with the legend Alan Douches.

"It's our best yet," say Brakes, "we're really happy with the way it came together and the sounds that were caught in Chem 19," say Brakes, "Touchdown is the fucking zenith of civilisation, it will make your jaw drop further than the Dow Jones in 2008, this album fucking shreds like an Enron paper shredder, it is A-fucking-stounding, yeah."