Arctic Monkeys new album "Out before Leeds and Reading" - DiS exclusive

DiS shared a few words with Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders yesterday in relation to Sheffield's new Tramlines festival (think: Dot To Dot or Live At Leeds, only free) which takes place between July 24th-26th.

More news on that coming shortly, but while we were there we asked him a few questions about the band's third record - recorded partly with Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

Here's what he had to say about the eagerly anticipated release...

Tell us about the third Arctic Monkeys album - is it all finished now?

It's all recorded now, yeah. We're about halfway through mixing it at the moment. I'm not sure about a release date, it'll probably be sometime in August before Leeds and Reading. Nothing's definite, though, it all depends on when we do the artwork and pick a title. And we've not finalised the tracklisting yet, we're mixing quite a few and then narrowing it down - so it also depends on how long we take doing that. We'll probably do it in the next week or so, sort it all out.

You did some sessions at Josh Homme's studio, how much of that stuff has made it onto the album?

It's looking like being half that, and half with James Ford. It works together, though, it's not like a double sided thing. It seems to sit together quite well, you can't tell what was done where.

How was working with Josh? He's been a fan of yours for a while...

We were all massive [Queens Of The Stone Age] fans before we were even a band, and to work with someone like that is just amazing. He's produced a lot of their stuff, and nothing's a chore for him - like if you do a song four times and then want to change a drum, he'll do it. He sees how important things like that are, and he knows about good sounds, too.

He's reputed to be something of a fiery figure, did you experience any of that?

Not really, no. He always had an authority over us, in a way, but he never got angry with us or anything. He's a really nice guy, really funny as well.

In terms of the sound of the record, have you pursued the heavier direction of the second album or gone on a different tangent?

Bits of it are in [Favourite Worst Nightmare's] direction, but there's some quite melodic things as well. It's not, like a 'heavy' album, though there are elements of that. I don't want to give anything away because we haven't decided on the tracklisting yet, but the songs we've been playing live recently, like 'Crying Lightning' and 'Dangerous Animals', I reckon they'll all make it on there.

Read: the full interview with more about Tramlines