SPECTOR release their second album, Moth Boys, on August 21. They play Reading and Leeds festival on August 29 and 30, and tour the UK in October, playing at Glasgow's King Tut's on the 21st. We spoke to singer Fred Macpherson to find out more...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT THE MOMENT?

Talking about the album a lot and promoting, and also trying to do some writing for the next album. It's a good time to get some of that done because there's no pressure on us at the moment. I'm trying to make the most of this downtime and see if there's anything still left to say.

AND IS THERE?

A lot of the songs for this second album were written over a year ago, so yeah. And I think with this second album we've only just started to develop a sense of identity, and really find a voice, so I would hope there is plenty more to say. I think it's getting to a point of being unique. When you start off in a band, you basically rip loads of people off, but the longer you go on, you have to carve out your own thing and be true to yourself. The best artists are the people who find new ways to talk about universal themes.

HOW DIFFICULT DID YOU FIND WRITING THIS SECOND ALBUM?

I think it took a lot longer than we expected. We set the bar pretty high in terms of expectations, and we did think it would've been done quicker, but if we had done that it would've been a lot more similar to the first, which defeats the purpose. There is a certain difficulty in approaching a second album, working out what it should be - but once we indulged ourselves, it was great. Now comes the hard part, actually getting people to listen to it.

THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER OUTLETS FOR GETTING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE WITH NEW MUSIC - ESPECIALLY ON TV. DO YOU FIND IT A CHALLENGE?

I think we had a lot of good opportunities with the first album, so we can't complain there. It's more when you have a song like All The Sad Young Men, which is on the new album, and I know people would love it. I want to get it in front of everyone, but then it only takes someone posting it on their Facebook or Twitter page and it suddenly has the potential to be seen on the other side of the world by someone who had never heard of us before.

YOU LIKE THE INTERNET THEN?

Most definitely. There's so much freedom for getting music out there. Traditional methods of distribution have been dismantled and everything feels more modern. And we can't complain about that, we can't go back to how things were in the 80s and 90s, we just have to engage with the tools we have now.

TRIBALISM WITHIN MUSIC DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE, AS A RESULT OF THE INTERNET. IS THAT A GOOD THING?

Yeah I think so. It used to be that you'd just listen to whatever music you were supposed to, and people in your town that dressed the same way listened to the same stuff and you could tell. Now tribes are international, and everyone listens to everything. The challenge for bands is to then write songs that people want to hear. I get bored by the unchallenged history of British music, how one thing became another, and the way music is talked about is very linear. I like that 2015 things can't be described in one line, and things are harder to forecast.

HOW DOES IT AFFECT SPECTOR?

I think the challenge is the same for every band, and that the emphasis is on songs, more than ever, and a good Spector song is just a good song, it doesn't play by any rules, and can be anything we want it to be. There are lots of songs on the new album that don't sound like you might expect them to, based on our first album, and they don't play by any rules. We try to define ourselves as a band that makes good songs, not whether they fulfil any style that we're expected to.

:: Find out more about Spector at www.spector.co.uk