"That was fucking insaaane," laughs We Are Scientists frontman Keith Murray when I remind him of Kanye West's totally bat-shit mental video game concept, where his late mother flies to heaven on a winged horse. "The best part of that, is that we haven't heard anything about that video game ever again. It's a video game about her ascent to heaven - what can that game possibly involve? How do you win or lose? I want this game so badly."
So do we. This minor detour into the 'quirks' of Yeezy is not without reason, reader. This week sees the band release their fifth album, Helter Seltzer - an effervescent and bold listen, where the songs have real space to breathe and stand firm on their own grounds. They're on fine form, as you can find out for yourself when they headline the Gigwise stage at Live At Leeds festival as part of a summer of wide scale touring - also marking 10 years since the release of their runaway debut, With Love And Squalor.
Over that decade, We Are Scientists have outlived many of their peers who drowned in the indie landfill, with a wicked humour, a closeness to their fans that few bands enjoy and an emotional honesty to their music. While they're as eccentric as they are 'open', they're still very much human - which is where the huge chasm between them and Kanye West on his heavenly space horse exists.
"We as characters as a band sometimes tread a pretty funny line between being very much 'Keith and Chris' as we are, but by virtue quite jokey," admits Keith. "We keep quite raw emotional truths at an arms' length. There are plenty of bands who like to pour out their own psyches when they speak to journalists or have a very public forum. Kanye West maybe?
"Regardless of how you feel about his constant deluge of emotion, it's at least interesting - it keeps people very interested and invested in him. On the flipside of that is that we like to be extremely personable and think of them as friends of theirs, without unloading our emotional baggage all over them."
Keith tells us that the new album is largely concerned with 'anticipating what's to come at the start of a new relationship', but enjoys the widescreen ambiguity that comes with his approach. While they may not want to appear emotionally exposed, the camaraderie and familiarity between them and their fans more than bridges that gap. If you've been to a We Are Scientists show or even watched one of their music videos, you'll be well aware that they will never take themselves too seriously, and they want you in on the joke. That's not to say they're clowns, or that particularly give a shit about what you think.
"We spend precious little time actually considering what is expected from us," laughs Keith. "That's not to the degradation of our delivery to our fans, because I think part of our general appeal in the past has been our inscrutable decisions to just do what is appealing to us. A big part of our identity is that people's reaction to what we do is initially confusion, which is to say 'what is this thing that they've done?' or 'what an unorthodox move to do karaoke Boyz II Men as an encore'. 'Expected the unexpected' is incredibly hackneyed, but fans know that the things we do won't be generic."
And what happens when people read them completely wrong or just don't get it?
"I don't think we really give a shit," he dryly smiles. "It's important that we have context for where we sit in people's perceptions, but it's obviously ludicrous given that it's our artistic passion and careers to go and say 'we don't give a damn about what people think'. We're putting this out for people to critique and potentially purchase so we can continue to do this for a living."
And when you take all that into account, they're doing pretty damn well. Ten years is a long time in this game - without disappearing into total obscurity, and up your own arse. Therein lays the secret to their survival, and enduring charm as a band and personalities.
"We have a very casual attitude towards everything because we throw a lot of disdain towards the pomp that's often packaged with success," sighs Keith. "You could say we undermine ourselves by being so down to earth and transparent. There's something valuable in lending a perception of yourself as 'otherworldly' or 'separate' from other people, which puts me off about 99% of other musicians.
"Bands that are way worse and stupider than we are get treated like they're more gifted because they act like they are. We take our music seriously, but it would make me throw up to act like everybody else does. We can't do this any other way without hating ourselves and one another."
Well, you could get a leather jacket, move to LA and act like a rockstar...
"I can't imagine who you're talking about!" he chuckles, probably assuming we're referring to a certain bequiffed indie titan, formerly of Sheffield. But then there's the other end of the spectrum. One could move to a cabin in the woods, grow a beard and write an achingly earnest album...
"I don't have an argument against those things, but they're not personally in line with what I'm doing," phew. "They both make really good stories. Every album tends to have some kind of insane, PR driving story. It makes your work more interesting to say 'I went to the cabin alone and wrote the album on a guitar made of badger guts and a tree I felled myself...' Actually, that is a good story - and that's how we wrote this album!"
And that badger's name was Helter Seltzer?
"Yes, this album is honour of him - little Seltzer."
While we're talking about survival and humility and outliving so much landfill tripe from the 00s, our minds are quickly drawn to the indie amnesty social media phenomenon, swiftly and aptly followed by the breakup of The Enemy.
"They were little dudes, right?," hazily remembers Keith. "I don't mean that in a mean way, but they were post-Arctic Monkeys kids from some industrial town, right? I couldn't tell you what they sing but I remember the press."
Indeed, the little lad from Coventry and his two comrades called it a day - sighting a lack of interest from radio and the media, along with health issues. But was the brash relationship with the media exclusive to them, or was it purely an embarrassment-enduced knee-jerk reaction to kick against so many of the bands that came about during this era?
"I would say yes, but I don't think that's necessarily unfair," admits Keith. "Should radio just keep presenting the same sounds from 2005? I don't think so. It's our job as a band to evolve and if we happen to evolve in the same way as mainstream pop radio, then awesome. But for a band on their fifth album to sound like they did on their first album and then bemoan that the radio isn't interested in that, that's totally fucking insane. I don't listen to The Cribs' first album, why should radio try to recreate that year?"
"By virtue of having been on the radio back when that was the sound, it's a hurdle for us to get over. People associate us with that time and music that's of a bygone era. Hopefully we don't sound like that and people get it."
You don't, we do, and we love it. Bands may come and bands may go, but when you hit that sweet spot of integrity, honesty and one hell of a good time, well - some things just don't go out of style.
We Are Scientists release their new album Helter Seltzer on Friday 22 April. They will then be in the UK to headline the Gigwise stage at Live At Leeds festival and tour along with a wider UK tour. Full dates are below. For tickets and more information, visit here.
April 25 - Nottingham, UK Rescue Rooms
April 26 - Newcastle, UK - Riverside
April 27 - Birmingham, UK - Library
April 29 - Leicester, UK - Handmade Festival
April 30 - Leeds, UK - Live at Leeds Festival
May 1 - Glasgow, UK - Stag & Dagger Fest
May 3 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2
May 4 - London, UK - Koko
May 5 - Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
July 30 - Penrith - Kendal Calling
August 12 - Ledbury - Lakefest
