The past two years have been ones of frustration for Welsh megastars Lostprophets, but now they can see the light at the end of the tunnel as they are on the cusp of releasing their fourth studio album The Betrayed, and boy does it shine brightly? Guitarist, Lee Gaze, took time out to talk to us about the pre-release excitement, barbequing with ACDC and Rhys Ifans!

Your official album listening party was last Thursday at the Gibson Guitar Studio in London, how was the night and how did it feel to finally let the press and a few select fans listen to the album?
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get there because of the weather, it was all a bit hectic, but Ian went down, and so far the reception both from the fans and the press has been amazing. I mean, the feedback I’ve been getting off things like Twitter has been really positive.

You have been working on ‘The Betrayed’ for a very long time now, how far did you get with the original version of it? What made you scrap it? And will your fans ever get to hear the scrapped tracks?
We actually recorded the whole thing! All the songs were done, and not one of us was feeling it at all. So we just scrapped it. We didn’t see the point in releasing something that none of us were into. It wasn’t us, it was all too polished. As for fans ever hearing the scrapped album; not a chance!

Were there any times when you guys just thought about giving up when it was getting pretty tough?
Lee: That was not an option! This is all we can do, and it’s all we want to do. I’ll admit that it was pretty tough, but at the end of the day, we can’t just give it all up and start something else. That’s not who we are. We wouldn’t want to bring this to a close.

Did you find it hard headlining Download Festival back in 2008 whilst you were still in the early stages of creating your new album?
Well this was the first headline slot we’d ever been asked to play, and seeing as it was a festival as iconic as Download, it was pretty amazing. It wasn’t really hard for us to play, I think we all needed a bit of breathing space, because everything was a bit difficult at the time, we needed some time away from the studio, and it certainly helped us. We had a lot of fun!

How would you say ‘The Betrayed’ compares to your previous albums?
Here come the inevitable clichés! But seriously, I think this is the best album we’ve ever made. Don’t get me wrong I did love Liberation Transmission, but I always thought that Start Something was the best album we’ve produced. That was until now anyway, The Betrayed is, in my opinion, the best thing we’ve ever done.

What themes, stories and lyrical content features in ‘The Betrayed’? Are there any examples of you venting your frustration of the recording process on there?
Ian (Watkins, vocals) has written all the lyrics for this album by himself, he hasn’t had any help from anyone! A lot of the lyrics are very personal to him, he’s been through a lot recently, so this album shows a more honest side of him. There’s one song on there called ‘Dstryr/Dstryr’, and it’s fucking brutal! It’s the heaviest song we’ve ever done, that song’s been in the making for a while now, and we just kept layering up the guitars, so it’s a bit of an epic song really! It shows that we ain’t going anywhere!

What would you say is your favourite track from ‘The Betrayed’
I would have to say the last track ‘The Light That Burns Twice As Bright’, which is also a bit of an epic one! We recorded all of the guitars live, which is something we’ve never done before, and it gives it a totally different sound, it’s actually my all time favourite song that we’ve ever done.

Who were your main influences when recording ‘The Betrayed’?
A lot of my influences have remained the same since the beginning, but I also think that you get a lot of influence subconsciously too, from the people and things around you. I suppose musically I’m influenced quite a bit by stuff like The Cure, and heavier bands like Metallica and Megadeth. When I play a solo, it usually ends up sounding like a Kirk Hammet (guitarist in Metallica) one, but this time I’ve stepped it up a gear and gone for something that sounds like Dave Mustaine (vocalist/guitarist in Megadeth)! I think that’s a definite advance, listen out for it! As a whole, we use a lot of clean guitar effects in Lostprophets, so I’d have to say we’re all definitely influenced by The Police and in particular Andy Summers.

You head back out on tour in February, how much are you looking forward to getting back on the road and will your set list be dominated with new material or a big mix from all albums?
Yeah, we can’t wait to get back on the road! The new album will be out by then, so quite a lot off that will feature in our set. But we’ll definitely mix it up and bit and throw a few oldies in too to keep everyone happy. But do expect to hear quite a bit off The Betrayed.

If you met someone who had never heard of the Lostprophets what song would you suggest they listen to, to understand what the band are all about?
It’d have to be ‘Dstryr/Dstryr’ off the new record. It shows how heavy we can be, and as I said before, it’s a bit epic!

It’s fair to say that musically, Lostprophets have changed quite a bit since the days of Thefakesoundofprogress, what would you say to someone who suggested that you are merely jumping on the bandwagon of what ever is popular at the time?
I find it difficult to even think of a bandwagon that we might jump on! With us, nothing’s contrived. It took us years to shake off the whole nu-metal thing, and then suddenly we were emo. I think people just see one fringe and assume you’re an emo band! And let’s be honest, how long do those bands last anyway? Five minutes? We’ve been doing this for a long time now, and we’ve been making our music long before these terms were being banded around. It did used to get to me at first, but then you’ve just got to learn to deal with it. I read a review of ours the other day that described us as ‘emo/pop-punk’, I can’t really see how we’re either of those! If anything, I think we’ve set the benchmark for those kind of bands, that was a bit big headed actually!

So you have been together for 13 years now, did you ever think back then that you would still be together after all this time and be on your forth album and at the top of your game?
Absolutely! Ian and I have never planned for anything else, it’s either do or die! What else would we do?

Referring to the previous question, you’re are very much still at the top of your game, where do you expect to go from here?
Well, as I have mentioned ‘The Betrayed’ is definitely our best record yet, so hopefully it’ll do really well over here. And it’s already doing well in Japan, I’ve just found out that it’s currently at number two in their charts. And then there’s always the US, we had great success over there with Start Something, but not really with Liberation Transmission, so hopefully we’ll get to go back over there again. And we’re going back to Australia for the first time in six years, that’s pretty exciting.

Would it be possible for you to name your main highlight of your long career so far?
There have been so many! I suppose whenever we play Reading is a highlight, that’s always pretty special to us. Like I said, the release of this new album is a highlight after all the hard work we’ve put in. And then there’s the surreal moments like going for a barbeque at Brian Johnson’s (singer, ACDC) and getting to drive his cars around! That was insane!

Are there still moments when you have to pinch yourself because you can’t believe how far you’ve come?
Most definitely. We’re very lucky to be where we are today, and sometimes you just can’t believe you’re doing it for a living.

Do you think you’ll ever get bored of playing with Lostprophets?
Not any time soon! As long as we’re all still getting on, and we’re still making good music then I think I could do this forever.

Over the past few years Wales have proven to be one of the world’s finest exporters of alternative rock, why do you think this is?
Yeah, it makes me very proud to think about it! Even people like Tom Jones, or Duffy! Even if you don’t like her, she does have a cracking voice! But I think we set a bit of a precedent for heavier bands, because when we first started out we couldn’t get a gig to save our lives, because we weren’t wearing flares and playing shoe-gazer music! But then when we actually made it, the same venues that wouldn’t give us gigs back then were falling over themselves to book us! It was very strange.

What would you say has been Wales’ finest export of the last decade?
I’m going to play it safe and go with Rhys Ifans, you know the guy from Notting Hill? The scrawny one with the beard? He’s the best.

Are there any Welsh bands that you think are going to be successful in 2010?
I’m going to say Kids In Glass Houses. Their new record sounds incredible, they’re definitely not afraid to be big and bold. We’re taking them on tour with us in February, they’re really nice guys!

What do you think you’d all be doing if you weren’t in Lostprophets?
I really can’t imagine not being in Lostprophets, because it’s been so long now, it’s just what we do. I suppose I’d just do what I did before; I was a pizza delivery guy. My pizza delivery days are over, well, we’d better wait and see how the new album does first!

Interview By Ben Connell