Dirty new album

DPT survive the struggle to deliver record No 2

02 May 2008 - Two years after the release of their Gold selling debut album Waterloo To Anywhere , Dirty Pretty Things are back, with a new, as yet untitled, record due on 30th June.

The recording process has not not been without its setbacks though, with the band succombing to the 'difficult second album' cliche.

But now the record is in the bag, frontman Carl Barat told 6 Music he's thrilled they are finally able to announce a release date: "Finally it's all come together, we've put our differences behind us and we're all moving in the same direction."

Recording problems

The band hit problems when they travelled to the States to record the album; they had intended to finish the record there, but eventually returned to the UK to complete it.

"We ended up just spending a lot of time in the desert really, 'cause it all got a bit much," Carl explains, "We all had a bit of cabin fever and things weren't going quite as fast as we wanted for various reasons."
 

"This album's moved on a lot in sound. The songs come from the same place, but they just sound different."
Carl Barat

"We got the bones of the record down there and then we just came to England and pulled ourselves together and got on with it and it all works out good."

Despite adding their own improvements to the record back in the UK, in an attempt to get back to their original vision for the album, Carl Barat was still a gentleman about the producer they used in LA.

"We knew what we wanted from the demos really, so we did have a good idea of what we wanted. We wanted to do it ourselves but once again people weren't too impressed with that idea.

"So our manager suggested this fellow Nik Leman, he used to be The Prodigy's DJ. He's a fine fellow and we got some good stuff done out there."

Production is now credited to Dirty Pretty Things, Nik Leman, Graeme Stewart and Ben Wood, with the album mixed by Mike "Spike" Drake.

New album's sound

The first single will be called Tired Of England, and is out on 23 June. Carl gave 6 Music a clue as to how the record will sound.

"This album's moved on a lot in sound. The songs come from the same place, but they just sound different. I guess there must be some element of maturity in the new stuff.

"I'm quite a schizophrenic writer though; I sort of love and hate what i'm doing at the same time, and I worry about if it's good enough. I guess that's part of the reason it's taken so bleedin' long! Just had to get on with it in the end and just put it out."

Dirty Pretty Things have announced a twelve-date tour of the UK, commencing in Glasgow on the 14th May, and Carl says the band are itching to get out on the road again.

"Just can't wait to play it really, can't wait to get it out and just get on with it really, it has been frustraing having to wait for this long."

Lucy O'Doherty