Ben Howards talks tones

Ben Howards talks tones, tantrums and orchestral guitars,
Did you feel vindicated when it went to No 1?

"I don’t know how much of that was [momentum from] the first record, but I like the idea that this record went out to a lot of people. It’s not like we’re doing anything vastly different to anyone else - we’re all just fucking making noises and vibrating ear drums. I’m not unaware of that, you know?
"But it is nice playing music that I think has got real intent and is honest in its playing.

It’s quite nice to think that [the album] can be [out] among artists that have the musical integrity of... nothing... It’s a hard one, because you can get on your high horse about anything.

"I don’t think we’re any better than anything else, but it’s nice to think that there’s music there that people are listening to - and we made it - and at the time it was something we really enjoyed."

The difference between the two is stark, but both of your albums open with solitary guitar lines. Was that by accident or by design?

"That was purely accidental! To put Small Things first, it was just my favourite song on the album... It was the same thing with End Of The Affair, a lot of people thought that I’d released that as a statement of intent - and I had to fight quite hard to put that out first - because I felt that if people heard that then they would understand the record. That they would listen to it as a whole.
"I see those tracks as brother and sister - it’s a really similar guitar [part] on them both. For me, it kind of rounded up the winter and rounded up those songs."

With three guitar players in the studio for recording, how did you decide who was going to play what part?

"We laboured over a lot of the parts. The boys have got a lot of guitar on this as well, so there were a lot of long conversations about what guitar parts fitted in where. A lot of the time when we record, it’s trying to fit stuff around my parts, because they take up so much room. It was really good to go into that, and the boys are so versatile.

"I’ve always said that I’m technically the worst guitarist in the land, whereas Nat [Wasson] and Mickey [Smith] who’ve joined are both phenomenal guitarists. Nat’s played with quite a lot of Manchester bands, like Pete Hook etc, and his knowledge of music is mind-blowing and he’s probably one of the best guitarists in the country.

"So that was always brilliant, me going, ‘Err, can we try and do this…’ Maybe it takes someone like that to figure out where their space is in the music and then Chris and Bear [Bond] are obviously great guitarists as well. "