MAKING a debut album is an all-consuming process for any band, but this summer’s political and social upheaval meant Brighton rock band Tigercub’s recording sessions were host to a heightened level of intensity.

“We’d be doing takes in the studio and we’d go back into the control room and somebody would say, ‘There’s been a mass military coup in Turkey,’ for instance,” says singer and guitarist Jamie Hall, originally from Sunderland and a graduate of Brighton Institute of Modern Music.

“Theresa May came into power and people were still feeling the result of Brexit. The migrant crisis was obviously very affecting at this time, too.”

“I don’t want to say there is a political depth to this album,” says Hall of Tigercub’s first record Abstract Figures In The Dark, out today, “but I wanted those elements to be in the mix. I wanted the process to document our lives at that stage and these were just the thoughts we had at the time.

I thought it would be a wasted opportunity not do include that.”

Ahead of an in-store gig at Resident on Sunday, Hall reflects on the shifting sound of his band – from their roots in Nirvana-esque grunge to the more idiosyncratic proposition they are now. Hall says Abstract Figures In The Dark is a “realisation of who we are”.

“We sort of decided that grunge thing wasn’t really for us anymore,” adds the singer. “It started to be cool to sound like that and we didn’t want to get sucked into any of that.”

Tigercub’s sound these days retains a heavy rock appeal but merged with psychedelic elements and a canny use of studio effects.

They were aided in the making of the record by Alex Newport, who has produced albums by established alternative rock bands such as Bloc Party and At The Drive-In.

The recording was carried out at Brighton Electric studio, a local institution that Hall calls a “meeting place” for like-minded bands. “If you’re playing there you’ll have Royal Blood coming through the walls. Blood Red Shoes might be in one room with British Sea Power in another room. It’s a common ground we all have.”

On his band’s record, Hall says the group “went into the studio with an idea of what we wanted”.

“We’ve learnt to sound really dirty and heavy but also clean.

“If you listen to any Led Zeppelin record there is that mix. It’s easy to hide behind a wall of

fuzz but we wanted our personalities to shine through.”

This aim is also evident in the lyrics of the record, which Hall says are more direct than ever before. “I’ve always written the songs in a pretty abstract way and I realised I was always hiding behind metaphors and deliberately making the words not make sense.

“I guess there is a fear of people you know knowing certain things about you. I tried to strip back the pretension on this record, though.

“I was worried about how I could find my emotional place.

“God, this sounds like a therapy meeting. The fact I repress things and am too scared to say things is a lyrical theme in itself, though.”

Tigercub are not a “buzz band,” says the singer – they have been working hard for five years and are now starting to reap the rewards.

Hall says the band’s gig at Patterns last month was “a bit of a moment for us”.

“We’re one of those slow-burner bands,” he adds. “I feel like I need some more experience in life – you need to have good and bad things happen to you before you have anything interesting to say.”

This forward-thinking approach is commendable and reiterated by Hall’s “sort of” motto for Tigercub: “If you’re not embarrassed at what you did six months ago, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Resident Records, Kensington Gardens, Brighton, Sunday, November 13, starts 5pm, pre-order the album in any format online or in store to reserve two spaces for the gig. There's also a pink limited 12in vinyl LP available, only from Resident