I Am Kloot

Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, Friday, April 24

"WE kept going through gigging. So many record labels went out of business on us, but we knew if we kept playing and touring then people would come and see us if they were into it.

“There’s something very galvanising when it’s you against the world with something to prove. It brings out the best in you.”

I Am Kloot bassist Peter Jobson is quick to admit the live stage has always been of integral importance to the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Manchester band, which has just celebrated 15 years on the road.

So it’s surprising that, aside from a 2006 BBC Sessions release, it has taken this long for the band to release a live album. Hold Back The Night, which came out earlier this month, was recorded at a 2013 show in London’s Union Chapel.

“We felt it was a good time,” says Jobson, who has spent the two-year hiatus since Kloot’s last album Let It All In touring with Sunderland singer-songwriter Nadine Shah.

“We have made a lot of albums now, and there are songs from each of them on it. There was a hell of a lot to choose from.

“People were talking about us doing a greatest hits – but we haven’t had any hits! A best of is what you do when a band no longer exists. It sounds like we are hanging up our gloves.”

When it came to producing the album the band was keen to keep it as raw as possible – avoiding studio overdubs and getting long time sound engineer Richard Knowles to mix it.

“He didn’t have to do a great deal to it,” says Jobson. “It’s pretty much how it sounded on the night – it captures the moment.

“It was funny – when we played a really good gig we’d come off stage buzzing, but it would never get recorded.

“We recorded a string of gigs on that tour – it was brilliant listening back to it. We did it democratically – if anyone had a problem it didn’t get used. There are no howling great mistakes on there.”

The band has now reconvened after a well-earned rest, and is going back on the road as a three-piece. They had spent the years since 2010’s Mercury-bothering epic Sky At Night touring with extra string players.

“With the last two LPs there were a lot of things on the recordings that the three of us weren’t able to pull off,” says Jobson. “It was good to make albums that were a bit more expansive. After doing that for a while it’s good to change it up a bit. I loved playing with those other musicians, but there’s something unique about a three-piece on stage. You have an element of surprise, you can create a sound people don’t expect. It feels like going back to how we started – you can do a lot with dynamics. The limitations are what make you better.”

The trio will be working up new songs too for a projected seventh studio album.

But following the release of the band’s 2014 soundtrack to the drama series From Here To There – covering the four years after the Arndale Centre blast in their native Manchester - the songwriting approach is set to change.

“The way it used to work was John [Bramwell, guitarist and vocalist] would write all the songs and lyrics,” says Jobson. “He would play them to us in the rehearsal room, and we [Jobson and drummer Andy Hargreaves] would join in. For the soundtrack we got our ideas together separately and put them together.

“It will be interesting to see what it’s like, coming in with new ideas and seeing what everybody else has got.”

Doors 7pm, tickets £18. Call 01273 673311