I DON’T think anyone ever forgets their first concert – it’s one of the most exciting things you can ever experience. The thought of being someone’s first concert experience is a good one.”

Brighton-born Lawson drummer Adam Pitts remembers growing up on the city’s music scene, both seeing the likes of Feeder, Maroon 5 and Dashboard Confessional at Concorde 2, and playing his own shows in the Pav Tav in Castle Square and the Hope in Queen’s Road.

His band is coming back to headline the Arts Council-funded 14+ afternoon at The Great Escape, and showcase previously unheard tracks from Lawson’s forthcoming as-yet-untitled second album.

“It will be cool playing a small intimate venue as part of The Great Escape,” he says, pointing out the band’s last city show in 2013 was at the Brighton Centre.

“It will be the first time people hear the new songs, so seeing their reactions up close will be scary.”

To record the follow-up to 2012’s top three album Chapman Square, the band, made up of Pitts, guitarist and singer Andy Brown, bassist Ryan Fletcher and guitarist Joel Peat went to Nashville with producer John Field.

“It’s one of the most amazing places I have ever been to,” says Pitts. “The whole town is based around music.

“We went into someone else’s session to see how they recorded – about eight musicians would come in, listen to the song once and then play it. And that was it – the single was recorded. It was so backwards to how we did it in England where everything is multi-tracked.”

Taking inspiration from the location the band decided to record a song a day in the studio.

“We were doing 18 to 19-hour days, but we would get the song finished,” says Pitts, saying the band built the songs from initial sketches on the piano or acoustic guitar.

“On the first album I did all my drum parts in a couple of days – and then I had nothing left to do!”

The quartet recorded up to 20 songs, which they are now whittling down for their second full-length release.

Pitts says recent single Roads is more of a nod to their pop roots, than the rockier direction the band is now taking.

“It has been four years since we started recording Chapman Square,” he says. “We’ve grown and our sound has matured.

“Songs like Used To Be Us and Mountains have monstrous guitar solos. We’ve taken inspiration from One Republic and Imagine Dragons. Andy’s voice always makes it sound like a Lawson song though.”

The song subjects have changed too.

“Chapman Square was based around relationships,” says Pitts. “This second album will be more about the experiences we have had over the last six years travelling around the world. We Are Kings is about feeling on top of the world – there is no better feeling.”

The aforementioned We Are Kings also introduces a new member of the band – Peat’s mum on flute.

“We were working on the song and had this great idea that we should get a flute on it,” says Pitts.

“Joel said his mum played the flute, so we Facetimed her. We had forgotten about the big time difference between Nashville and the UK so we called her at 2am – she started out thinking something was horribly wrong.

“When we told her what we needed though she pulled through – we sent her the song, she put her headphones on and ten minutes later she had done her part. She’s an official band member now – when we’re in Nottingham we will definitely get her onstage to play her solo!”

Also on the bill are Get Inuit, K Flay, New City Blues, Optical and Klara Ketelaars.

Duncan Hall