Blood Red Shoes, Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Apr 7

9:52am Friday 4th April 2008

Back in January 2007 the then unsigned Brighton duo Blood Red Shoes were one of the bands the NME picked out to watch for the coming year.

Now, 16 months later, following a slew of limited-edition singles and a seemingly never-ending tour, Laura-Mary Carter and Steve Ansell could finally unleash some of their potential with the release of their long-awaited debut album Box Of Secrets.

"It's been a really long time," says Laura-Mary, home in Brighton for the first time since the New Year.

"It feels quite weird - it almost felt like the album was never going to come out. The record kept being put back and when we were about to release it the label V2 got bought out by Universal. We had to wait to find out whether we were going to get dropped only three months after getting signed!"

But at long last the band will see the release of the album they recorded last summer - if Laura-Mary can complete the artwork in time.

"We have been on tour for so long it has been difficult to do it," she says.

Her involvement in the design aspect is part of the do-it-yourself attitude the band have had since their very beginning. They recorded the album themselves over three weeks on Steve's old analogue tape machine.

Long-time fans of the band will recognise a lot of the old singles and live favourites on the record, including ADHD, I Wish I Was Someone Better, It's Getting Boring By The Sea and the brilliant Take The Weight.

The band have left a surprise on there for fans, though.

"The last song on the album, Hope You're Holding Up, we have never played live," says Laura-Mary. "It's older than some of the songs on there but we decided to keep it back for the album. It's a bit different from the other songs."

One thing Steve has boasted about on their website is the fact the record doesn't contain one love song.

"It's not really us," admits Laura-Mary. "I don't think we could write a love song, we're not that kind of band. The closest thing to a love song on the album is This Is Not For You, which is more of an anti-love song about realising you're not going to find Mr Right."

"We are just really cynical people. All the songs are pretty depressing, the lyrics are about being bored or dissatisfied with stuff. There is that kind of theme throughout the whole album, "It's teenage angst even though we aren't teenagers!"

Despite looking on the surface like a British version of The White Stripes - with their boy-girl line-up and the lack of a bass player - anyone who has seen Blood Red Shoes live will know that they couldn't be more different.

Where Jack White looks to the Mississippi Delta for inspiration, Laura-Mary and Steve are more influenced by the sonic experiments of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth.

As a drummer Steve's style is worlds away from Meg White's simplistic meat and potatoes playing, while Laura-Mary has the ability to make her guitar sound like there are many more than just two people on stage.

The pair take it in turns to provide vocals, creating a great harmonic sound with Steve's higher register and Laura-Mary's seductive, low tones.

With their packed tour diary, it would be hard to imagine a regular gig-goer not coming across the pair at some point.

"Last year we did nearly 200 shows," says Laura-Mary. "This year we will be doing more than that. Since this year started we have already toured Austria, Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, England and now we're about to go to Japan. We've been everywhere. It's been pretty mad.

"You get used to it after a while. When you start off and know how many dates you have to do, it gets a bit hard in the beginning. But once you get into it you get into this tour mode, and you just adapt to it.

"The last one we did was a month straight. I think we were going a little bit nutty at that point. Our van kept breaking down and we had to keep push-starting it. There were really long drives and we couldn't sleep. We were trying to do loads of stuff like the artwork, promo and the B-sides, which Steve was trying to mix at petrol stations!

"As much as I love touring you can't deny that after spending every day with the same person you do need your own space.

"Our tour manager said, "You're like a married couple - but even married couples don't see each other as much as you and Steve do!'. I don't know how we manage it, to be honest."

Among the highpoints of last year was playing the UK festival circuit, and their first tour of Japan, on a bill with The Pipettes and Los Campesinos.

"We played in front of 2,500 people at our first show in Japan," she says. "We were sharing this really cool experience of being in a mad place. I never thought in my life I would end up playing music in Japan.

"Seeing the amount of people turning up on the last few tours has been amazing. People are starting to know who we are, they know the words and stuff. You can see our hard work is paying off. It felt really good. For a while we were playing at the same size venues and we wanted it to move on. We feel like it has now!"

Support from These New Puritans.

• Starts 8pm, tickets cost £7. Call 01273 647100.

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