James went to see You Me At Six at the Birmingham Ballroom, before the show kicked off, he went backstage to talk to Matt Barnes.

You latest album ‘Sinners Never Sleep’ was released back in October, are you happy with how the album has gone down with your fans and the press since the release?
Matt: Yeah, I don’t think it could have gone down any better to be honest. Every album that we’ve brought out seems to have got a bit more press and presence around it and people have liked it a little bit more. That’s literally all we were hoping for with this one, everyone said it was better than “Hold Me Down” which is what we wanted to achieve.

How did you find the whole writing and recording process for the album compared to your previous albums?
Matt: The writing was pretty much the same as with all the others, it’s quite easy. We were just jamming around, writing songs. There was no stress of writing or stress of figuring out melodies, all that got easier. The recording process was a lot tougher than the other ones because the other ones had been recorded in Reading and this one was recorded in LA with a producer called Garth Richardson who has done Rage Against The Machine and other bands like that. There was a lot of pressure on us to pull something out of the bag and be a better band. We just tried our hardest the whole time and just got stuck in. It was a lot harder but a lot of fun as well.

You had many guests featuring on the album such as Oli Sykes, Winston McCall etc how did these come about and how did you find working alongside a variety of people?
Matt: We had two songs ‘Bite My Tongue’ and ‘Time Is Money’ that we wanted to make heavier but we weren’t sure how so, we first of all went to Oli because Josh had sung on the latest Horizon album. We said to him do you want to come and do this, he tried it out because he was passing through LA as Bring Me The Horizon were doing a show and it sounded awesome. Then we had the other song which sounded like it needed something at the end, something heavy so we called up Winston because he’s another good friend and asked if he wanted to try it. He said he was down, he tried it and we were like this sounds nothing like us, it’s amazing, let’s do it. I was a bit worried that people might think that that’s what the next album will be like but it won’t be, we won’t do that we just wanted to try all these different things.

You have recently worked alongside Thorpe Park and come up with the soundtrack to their new ride The Swarm, how did this come about?
Matt: They came to our label and said they wanted some kind of rocky song and for some reason is was between us and Professor Green. They said that they wanted a band to do it and we had this song half written anyway, we basically had the song apart from the melodies. We went into the studio and recorded it and just worked on it a little bit longer. They said it was the perfect song; they wanted it to start off by building up and then drop like the ride when it goes down.

Have you had chance to check out ‘The Swarm’ at Thorpe Park?
Matt: We haven’t had a chance to try the ride yet but we went to the opening. We had just landed after being in Australia and America for seven weeks so we just kind of turned up to show our faces and then we were like can we go home now (laughter)

You are currently towards the end of your headline UK tour, how have you found the tour so far?
Matt: I think it’s been the best and most fun tour we’ve ever done. We’ve got drum rises and co2 going off and crazy lights, we really went for it on this one. It’s our best looking show we’ve ever done.

How does it feel to be playing two sold out nights at in the same city and venue such as London, Birmingham and Manchester?
Matt: I like playing double nights mainly for the fact that we don’t have to do anything (laughter). All our crew are our friends and whenever they have to pack down they spend hours doing it, where as on a double night we can all just go out. So that’s one of the greatest things about double nights but obviously all of the people that care that come out and see you on either night or even both.

You are confirmed to play headline the second stage at Download Festival, you must be pretty excited about this and what can we expect from your set there?
Matt: We’re going to try and put on an even bigger show because we’re against Metallica so we have to do something (laughter). We’re thinking something along the lines of flames but we don’t know yet, we’ve still got to plan the stage so we’ll see what happens.

You have also been asked to play a couple of special concerts for Coca Cola to coincide with the Olympics; can you tell us more about this?
Matt: We’re doing one in Cardiff and one in London, the Cardiff one is free and the London one I think you have to pay a little bit for. There’s loads of random bands playing but we’re the only rock band. There’s going to be a lot of people there and it’s gonna be a good show and the Cardiff one is free so get tickets now.

Your current tour is coming to an end in a couple of days what do you have planned after this?
Matt: We have a bit of time off after this that we’re gonna spend at home and do some press. We’ll mainly stick around our area because we’ve been away since the beginning of the year in the States and Australia so I’m really looking forward to spending some time with my family.

What would you say your biggest high and low points as a band have been so far?
Matt: One of my biggest high points was probably playing Reading festival two years ago when we were on the main stage to like 30,000 people. Before we went on we just looked at each other and were like what the fuck, how have we managed this? The lowest point was probably the first year we did Warped Tour. We were in Idaho, it was raining and we were against All Time Low. It was Josh’s birthday and nobody really gave a shit, we were all falling out and it just wasn’t going very well.

What’s your opinion on the whole anti piracy laws going on at the moment and how it will affect the music industry?
Matt: You can’t stop people downloading music but if they did not many people would actually get to hear us. The reason we got to where we are is because of things like MySpace; people would download our songs and then download our album. As long as people listen to us and come to our shows then that’s all I really care about. We’re not really a massive album selling band; it’s never bothered us at all. The gigs are what we’re all about; it’s all about the live music.

Where do you hope to see You Me At Six in a year’s time?
Matt: Doing this a bit bigger and a bit better. Yeah just bigger and better (laughter)

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Matt: Definitely a Giraffe because you’ve got a longer neck and Zebras are probably gonna get eaten by Lions.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?

Matt: Thanks for coming down to the shows; if you’re here tonight I hope you have a good one. Thanks for all of your support; we wouldn’t be here without you.

Interview by James Daly