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.