England's Field Music hail from Sunderland, and released their first album in August of 2005. Two additional albums later, and it seemed that the end was near for the indie band that was made up of brothers David and Peter Brewis and bandmate Andy Moore.

They told the BBC that they were going to break up after the promo duties for their 3rd album, Tones of Town, were over in 2007. The "breakup" wasn't as dramatic as it sounded, however; they simply stepped away from their band duties for 3 years, and will be back in 2010 with a brand new set of Field Music songs (dubbed Field Music (Measure)) that will hit stores early in the year. David Brewis gives us the scoop on the process.              
So what was the real impetus behind taking three years off from the band, and what did each of you do with your free time? 

David Brewis: I think we could see a strong possibility that if we'd just kept plugging away immediately after we'd finished Tones of Town, then we'd be in danger of conforming to some abstract definition of what Field Music is supposed to sound like, rather than following our noses and trying to make the music we'd be most interested in.

We're not successful enough for there to be some huge financial imperative to repeat ourselves, like lots of bands, so anything which might hinder us in making the best music we can is definitely to be avoided! When we stopped touring for Field Music, I made a record under the name School of Language, which came out on Thrill Jockey in the U.S., which in turn meant that I got a chance to tour over here with some astounding musicians (Doug McCombs from Tortoise and Ryan Rapsys of Euphone). Peter, meanwhile, had started to piece together his album, The Week That Was, and we toured for that record too.

For all the talk of us needing an extended break from each other, we both played in each other's bands, with Peter playing bass for School of Language and me playing drums for The Week That Was. Peter also finished his Master's degree in composition at Newcastle University, and we've both done bits of work recording for other people at our studio in Sunderland. Andy Moore, who played piano in Field Music, started putting together a record too, but it fell by the wayside a little bit, in part because he was busy training as a chef. We haven't exactly had our feet up. 

Where was (Measure) recorded, and how did you approach the process - did you write the music first, or the lyrics - or was it more of a cohesive process? 

The album was recorded at our studio/practise room in Sunderland. I think both me and Peter tend to write music first, or at least, a musical idea tends to get the ball rolling even when we may use lyrics which were written previously. It can work in lots of different ways - a few snippets of music on the new record go back years and years, but other bits weren't finished until we were right at the end of recording. 

Is there a theme or inspiration that runs through (Measure)? What inspired the album's title and the way it's written? 

Unlike our previous records, we were keen for this one to quite sprawling musically and thematically - we didn't want something that was easy to sum up. I suppose we were going for something more like The White Album or Tusk or Physical Graffiti, where the feel of the album comes more from its variety.

We like the idea of having another self-titled album - a sort-of redefinition of principles - but for practical purposes, that would be difficult; so Field Music (Measure) is partly a nod to The White Album, which has both an unofficial title and an official one (and similarly with Led Zeppelin IV), and Peter Gabriel's first four solo albums, all of which were just called Peter Gabriel in the UK, but which had an additional qualifier added for the U.S. based on the artwork. Our artwork is a kind-of graphic score, so the 'measure' of the album title is partly referring to a (musical) bar - we would have chosen a different title had we used different artwork. 

Is the album's 20-track length a result of your having accumulated song ideas over the three years? 

No, not really. We've both been releasing records in the meantime so we haven't had time to build up a stash. We actually decided we wanted to do a double-album very early on in the process, long before we'd written all of the songs. Luckily the pressure to make it a long album spurred us on - I'm not sure I'd want to risk that again though, as it sounds like a recipe for writer's block. 

Who produced the album, and what were the best - and worst - things about the sessions for the new set? 

We produced the album ourselves and, other than the strings, a cornet on one song and backing vocals on one song, we played the whole thing ourselves too. The best sessions are always ones where you get more done than you think you will - for instance, on one day, Peter brought in two songs which I hadn't really heard before, and we just set up and sat down at the drums and piano and recorded the basic tracks;we got them done for both songs that morning. It feels like a very pure way to record!

The overall atmosphere for all of the sessions was of me and Peter trying to figure how best to help each other out; that might have been sitting at the back of the room not saying anything, or it might have been wrestling the guitar out of each other hands to show how its done, or even just going home early to give each other some space! The worst things were when neither of us could figure out how best to help out and we end up just pissing each other off. Happily, that really didn't happen very often. It's been the most enjoyable recording experience I've ever had. 

And will you be doing a full touring schedule to promote the new set? 

I hope so, but it all depends on demand, especially in the U.S.. In the UK, we can tour for very little - we have our own van and we're pretty well-organized. But in the U.S., we have to deal with visas and hiring or shipping equipment, and flights. It feels terrible when there might be ten die-hard Field Music fans in some remote corner of the States, but those ten aren't necessarily going to make it worthwhile for a promoter to put us on. Which is a shame! I'll keep my fingers crossed that people like the record and want to come and see us play.