Young Guns all fired up

Ones and Zeros is set to be released next month, and even though the five-piece recorded it in Bath, they wrote many of the songs in America.

"In New York we were staying in a place overlooking Times Square, and that really inspired us to write," says drummer Ben Jolliffe.

"The next single, Infinity, was written all around New York - Gus (Wood, singer) had the lyrics before we had any chords, and he came up with them going around New York, looking at the taxis and all these big buildings.

"Whether it's New York or San Francisco or the English countryside they all reflect where they were written."

The fivesome's hard rock has brought them success both at home and abroad, with second album Bones proving a big hit.

The album title track landed the group attention in America, aided by being picked as one of the official theme songs for Wrestlemania, the yearly spectacular event organised by World Wrestling Entertainment.

The quintet missed out on attending the event itself, though, thanks to a certain rap legend...

"We were all fans of wrestling as kids, so getting that song used at Wrestlemania was something that blew our minds," says Ben.

"Someone from our label was talking about Bones going down well with WWE, but we're very good at not getting excited about stuff.

"As a band you're used to getting false hope and then nothing happens, but it was crazy when it was used.

"We were in New York at the time and the show was in New Jersey, and we were supposed to go.

"It was us and P Diddy doing the two themes for it, but he wanted something like 250 people on his guest list, so we couldn't go because he took all the space."

Everything else has been hitting the target for the group, though. Ones and Zeros is the first record they've had some time to work on, and Ben's delighted by the results.

They'll be bringing the album to the Garage on Tuesday June 9.

"Glasgow's one of our favourite places to play, right back to the early days," says the drummer.

"I remember we had problems at King Tut's with the PA, because the crowd was singing so loudly we couldn't hear our PA.

"We've always had great experiences - when we played the Garage before everything was snowed under, which was mad, so maybe it'll be sunnier this time."

Since forming back in 2009, the band have firm favourites with Kerrang! Magazine, and they marked their return earlier this year by making a slightly bizarre cameo appearance on the magazine's multi-band tour, performing three songs each night in a low-key return.

However, the group would love even stranger shows - they fancy doing acoustic gigs on the streets in the future.

"We're always up for trying something new, and we're never a band who'll think we're bigger than anything," adds Ben.

"We want to do something like when a band like the Foo Fighters will be playing a festival and will do another small show as well - we want to do things with character.

"There's some bands who get successful and instantly think they're the next Axl Rose, but we're the opposite, and things like pop-up acoustic shows sound interesting."

Of course, given how the band have proved a hit in Thailand and America, wasn't recording in Bath a bit of an anti-climax?

"We were talking to producers in America and were in San Francisco for a bit (working with producer Dan The Automator), but while it was a great experience it didn't really work for the album," explains the sticksman.

"After spending a few years in America we thought we wanted to end up in England, and Steve Osbourne was interested in producing.

"He spends a lot of time in Bath and you can't get more English than there.

"We didn't want an album that was too dictated by the American market and so we ended up wanting something more British."

There's a few surprising influences, too

"We never wanted to write Bones Part Two.

"You have to be brave, and although you always have the fear that with something different it'll be shut down, we wanted to really push ourselves.

"I listen to a lot of hip-hop these days, and that really helped."

Young Guns, Garage, June 9, £12.50. 7pm