After four years away, British rock band A have decided to plug in their guitars once again and come to a venue near you. We caught up with singer Jason Perry to find out what they’ve been up to and what’s next.

First of all, can you introduce yourselves and tell us what you do in A?
Hi, I’m Jason and I sing in A.

What have you all been doing in the four years since we last saw you?
Well, Mark has been playing guitar in various bands, Adam has been off playing drums with the Bloodhound Gang, so he’s been touring pretty much all over the world! Dan’s been doing Radio 1’s Rock Show for a while now, and I’ve been in the studio recording with a few bands. It’s been a bit of a holiday for us!

What made you decide to take a break from A?
We didn’t really intend to take a break from A, at the time we thought that it would be the end of it. We all wanted to pursue other things, we’d been around the world, sold a bunch of records, and when things start to become a chore you know that it’s time you should give it up.

So, what made you decide to start touring again?
To be honest, we all just really missed it! It started out that we were discussing it one night, laughed about it and then the next day it happened – we’d booked a tour!

How is the tour going so far?
It’s absolutely amazing! This time round there’s no pressure on us, we’re just having fun, they’re like proper shows! We’ve always had a connection with our fans, it’s never been us and them, so playing these smaller venues really helps us to get that back. It’s nice to see people coming to see us again and still singing along to every word.

Are you seeing a lot of familiar faces from tours prior to your hiatus, or is there a new breed of A fans?
We’re definitely seeing a lot of younger fans, which is awesome. But we’re also seeing some of the familiar faces from years ago. It’s really nice because in these venues you can see everyone singing along to the songs, it’s not like there are two thousand people and only the ones at the front know every word. It’s pretty cool.

After some time out are you throwing yourselves back into the rock ‘n’ roll touring lifestyle or are you all taking it a bit easy, is it all tea, toast and early nights?
We’ve been doing this for so long now, so I suppose we are taking it a bit easy. On the old tours every night used to be like New Years Eve, so we’ve definitely taken a step back from that! We’ve always loved tea though! You can’t beat tea and beans on toast!

Are there going to be any new songs in your set tonight, or is it going to be the best of A?
It’s going to be the best of A! We’ve always been known for our song writing, so if the songs still work, we’re going to play them!

Do you still get the same buzz playing songs off How Ace Are Buildings and A Vs Monkey Kong as you did the first time round?
Most definitely! We love playing the oldies like Old Folks and Foghorn. We just think they’re really good songs, and they’re fun to play even if it’s only in front of five people! So yeah, they give us just as much of a buzz as they did all those years ago!

Can we expect a new album any time soon?
We’re going to go into the studio and record next year, but we’re not sure what format it will come out in. Whether it’s a full album, an EP or just tracks to download off the Internet, we’ll definitely put something out as long as people want it! There’s actually talk of a Best Of… album, so you’ll just have to wait and see!

Interview by Ben Connell