Gigwise has taken time out to speak to charismatic Long Blondes frontwoman Kate Jackson about her band’s impending new album ‘Couples’ and she has promised that it is both “inventive” and “brilliant.”

The follow to their 2006 debut ‘Someone To Drive You Home’ has been produced by Erol Alkan and Kate admits she has high expectations for it: “Hopefully it’ll become a break-up album as renowned as something like ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac.”

Explaining how the Sheffield five-piece have evolved over recent years, Kate added: “We’ve changed from basically a garage band who couldn’t play, to being an inventive, collaborative art project, which is what we’ve always wanted to be.

“I think it (‘Couples’) sounds brilliant. (Previously) we had the ideas but we didn’t have the capability – we were learning as we went along. But now we’ve been doing it for five years we’ve honed our craft and you can hear it on the record.”

It’s also a departure in style, abandoning the straight-down-the-line arty-indie vibe of their debut in favour of new sounds. “We’ve explored a lot of our influences further with this record so it’s not just indie guitar pop like the first album was.

“It’s much more disco influenced and there’s a lot of Eno synth sounds in there. I think it’s cleverer in a lot of ways, without sounding too pretentious,” Kate admits.

Check out Gigwise for the full Long Blondes interview in the coming weeks. 'Couples' is released on April 7 and preceded by the single 'Guilt' two weeks earlier.