Formed by four friends at Staffordshire Univeristy in England, Editors have taken the UK music scene by storm since releasing their debut single in January of 2005. Their brand of dramatic, moody gloom-rock has won over critics and audiences alike all over the world. Their debut album was nominated for the UK's Mercury Prize and their follow-up, An End Has A Start, went straight to the top of the UK charts. The band is no stranger to the U.S. either, having toured with bands like Stellastarr* as well as playing summer festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza and the Monolith Festival in Denver. Their latest American tour started last week in Florida and makes a stop at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday night. We spoke to lead singer Tom Smith in advance of the show.

Your current Record, An End Has A Start, has a much bigger sound than your debut album. What did producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee bring to the table as far as the recording process goes?

I think we wanted to put out a record with a more textured sound to it. That side has always been there. Even with the first record, there are big songs there, even though the record itself sounds a bit claustrophobic and icy. When people hear the songs from The Back Room played live, they were a lot bigger than people expected.

The first album definitely made a lot more sense to me after seeing you play it live. Songs like "Fingers in the Factories" sound quite different live. Much bigger...

I don't think we captured that with the first record at all. Of course we like immediate pop songs that kind of grab your attention, but on the first record we had songs like "Fall" and "Distance" that took their time a bit more. I don't think back then we had the confidence to sit at a piano or try some strings, so on this record we wanted to push that side of ourselves as well as doing the things we felt comfortable with. Garrett brought both sides out of us.

Did that confidence come from touring so much? You guys have been on the road pretty much non-stop since your first record was released.

Yeah, we do play a lot. It must have some affect. We play a lot, but it's important to us. We enjoy it. We're lucky in the respect that we don't fall apart when we're on the road. We like each other's company. And we'll keep playing as long as people will have us.

Photos by Kyle Gustafson.

Going back to Jacknife, this record has such a big sound, it almost seems as if you guys said "Fuck it, bring on the stadium rock."

When you're making a record, you're not thinking of a certain size venue in your mind. You just want to make a great sounding album. We just tried to make a dynamic record. Yes, there are huge bits, there are moments that are massive, but there are small bits on there too. I think both sides of us have been exaggerated. Garrett doesn't make lo-fi sounding records. It's a modern rock record sonically and we wanted to try something like that. If it puts us in whatever size venue, then so be it, but we just wanted to make a good record. It's really that simple.

My favorite part of the record is in "The Weight of the World" when the song comes down a bit and you sing the line "Love replaces fear." That's such a great moment.

Some people go on and on about this record and how much it's about death and that song is probably the most optimistic thing we've done. It's pretty and glorious and there are four or five moments on the record like that.

Obviously death is a big theme on the record, but I really find the music quite upbeat. I don't get sad or depressed listening to it, just the opposite actually.

Some of the lyrics do deal with quite serious things, but we like things that make you feel alive and get you excited. People don't come to our shows and cry, they come to have a good time, dance and enjoy themselves. The song may be dealing with something serious, but dealing with it in a way that people can swallow.

How do you go about the songwriting process?

I write the songs and then bring them to the band. But I don't write the finished product. I bring them to the band and we turn them into Editors songs. Nine times out of 10 they turn into something a million miles away from where we started. Everyone is important. We are a democracy. We sit down and talk about it and bring the songs to a place that we are all comfortable with.

Chris Urbanowicz is such an amazing guitar player. The riffs he comes up with really burrow into your head.

If I come up with a song written on an acoustic guitar with a vocal melody and a few lyrics and I play it for the guys, Chris almost sees it as his job to out-melody me. He tries to come up with a better hook than I've put into the song. Everyone has something that they bring into what we do. Without Chris, we wouldn't be Editors.

The drum sounds on this record really propels the music.

Ed probably did the most work out of any of us in the recording studio.

Whenever I read anything about the band, I see the obligatory Interpol and Joy Division references, but I hear a lot more Echo & the Bunnymen. Would that be fair to say?

Out of those three bands, the Bunnymen are probably our favorite. The first five Bunnymen records are unbelievable. But Interpol? How can they be an influence to us? They're too contemporary. We're not stupid, we see similarities in places in what we do and what they do. But if that's all anyone can see, I don't think they are listening very hard.

I've also read that you personally are a big R.E.M. fan and last year the band recorded a great cover of "Orange Crush." How do you rate their more recent records? I used to be a huge fan but they've lost me with the last few albums.

The first records are the records that I continue to listen to. I'm still intrigued by new R.E.M. material. I still think there are moments of greatness on all of their records. But I was disappointed by the last record, but I still listen to New Adventures In Hi-Fi quite a bit.

That is by far their most underrated record.

It's too long and there are too many songs on it but as far as ideas go, there are some great songs on there. It's a record they wrote and recorded on the road, which is quite an accomplishment. But yeah, they've had a bit of a shake up and now they're recording with Jacknife.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

I think they needed things turned on its head. I've heard half of the record and it sounds like they're having fun. A lot of fun. And it sounds loud as well. I've only heard it once and it hasn't really sunk in yet. But yeah, I think they're doing the right thing.

You grew up in England during the height of Britpop. Did Blur and Oasis inspire you to pick up a guitar and start writing songs?

It was exactly like that. When Definitely Maybe came out, and Parklife as well, I was 13 years old and those records, being everywhere on the radio, in the news, in the newspaper, that's what propelled me to pick up a guitar.

I bring that up because the English press is so quick to put bands into and label certain scenes, but that seems to be something you have avoided.

The press have always been nice to us but they've never really championed us. We've never been shoved down people's throats. But whenever we've done well, there's always someone doing a bit better than us, like the Arctic Monkeys. There always been a flavor of the week that's left us sort of in the shadows a bit.

So, in effect, they're running interference for you while you just focus on doing your thing.

Yeah exactly. And it kind of behooves us to be that way, so we're not shoved down people's throats.

Back to your touring schedule. You guys have toured the US much more than a lot of other British bands of similar stature. Are you seeing any tangible results from your hard work?

This tour we're doing now, we're playing the biggest places we've ever played. It's different than being at home. It's such a big place, it's hard to put your finger on how well you're doing. It's very hard for a band like us to get played on the radio, which is obviously very important. But having said that, we are playing the biggest tour we've ever done and we always have fun here and we enjoying come here. I think you need the right record and a bit of luck, but we'll continue to come here because I think there is something in what we do that American audiences like and connect with.

A friend of mine was in Spain a week or so ago and she said you were # 1 on TRL over there.

Really?

Yeah. How do make the time to go and play for all of your fans all over the world?

A record takes two years to tour properly and we still have places we should have gone to already. This record seems to be connecting with Europe more than anyone other place in the world really, which is great. It's amazing. But yes, it takes a lot of your time up. It's a good job that we all get on so well together because we do tour a lot and that's the only way to keep going.

You already have world-wide tour dates booked through April, what else is on the schedule for 2008?

After April, there's a bit of time off, a few weeks, and we'll start thinking about a new record, but also this summer we'll be playing some festivals as well.

Over in the UK or here in the US as well?

UK and Europe, maybe a few in the States. It's all being sorted out now. But I'm sure we'll be playing throughout the summer. I've started writing already and things are starting to come now and we'll keep going as the year progresses and our minds will go towards record number three. We're busy boys. Like I said, we've been touring the record since it came out last year. Wait. When did the record come out? Am I going mad? What year are we in now?

It's 2008. The record came out last year, in 2007. So this will be year number two touring behind it.

Yeah. We'll just keep playing basically.

Spoken like a true rock star. "What year is it? What's the date? Where am I?"

[laughs] Like I said, we're always on the road.