Lamb: Backstage @ Leeds 2003

Fortunately, Virtual Festivals were on hand to provide a little comfort and reassurance.

Louise: I have to admit, this is not my ideal festival

Andy: We haven't talked about it but we should play loud and fast songs! The slower stuff - maybe we should leave those for another time!

Louise: I think there's just going to be loads of E-d up punters in the dance tent

Andy: Have you seen any people that look like they like dance music?

Louise: No. It's a really rock-based festival. It's like, "What the fuck are we doing here?"

Andy: On the other day they've got Doves, Beck, Elbow - tons of stuff - and I'm like, "Wicked!" Then I look at our day and it's Metallica!

Virtual Festivals: So you haven't decided to go metal on the new album then?

Louise: This album's probably gentler! There's a real fallibility and sense of humanity to this album. More than any other, I think.

Andy: This is where we differ. Glastonbury at midnight! I'm like "Yes!" but Lou's pouring her heart out.

You've been playing a lot of festivals abroad. Have there been any moments that especially stand out?

Andy: There's tons. We did one a week ago in Switzerland. It was amazing. The Swiss really go for it. They do this thing that we've kind of adopted. In between, where you go off for an encore, instead of clapping they do this, "Ohmmm!" It's quite eerie when you hear three thousand people all doing it, it makes us want to play pretty well.

Also, you're suprisingly huge in Portugal. Why is that?

Louise: I dunno. Why are we so big in Portugal? It's a lovely country...

Andy: We've got our fingers crossed for Australia. It could be the next Portugal for us. Amazing food, great beaches. I was going to say great women...but I'm not going to say that.

You're both in long-term relationships. How does touring affect that?

Andy: When a band starts, you sleep around. We did our dues - we did an eighteen month tour. I just moved house and I was sorting out all my papers. We had a tour from 1999, three and half months solid touring around America and Europe. I looked at it and it was like, "How could I have done that?" Now we're at the stage where we do less of it.

Louise: I'm finding it more and more difficult to mix it with being a mother. When they were smaller they could come on tour but now my eldest is in school. It's just really difficult to work that in.

Has motherhood affected what you write about?

Louise: In practical terms, obviously it does because it limits the amount of time that you've got. But it does make you focus more when you are being creative. You can't mess around when you're a parent. It really does change things a lot.

Have things like that ever threatened the future of Lamb?

Andy: Maybe at the start we wanted to do different things. The only time we'd want to split up is when musically we're not seeing eye to eye. If we get time in the studio and we're writing good music together then everything else is peripheral. If the magic in the studio stops then that'd be the reason for us to go our separate ways.

The new album is out this autumn. Is there a title for it yet?

Andy: I like the original one again, now.

Louise: No! Andy changes his mind at the last minute all the time. The title at the moment is between 'Darkness' and 'Wonder'.

Andy: Yeah and option B is 'Darkness in a World of Wonder'.

Which tracks are you particularly proud of on the album?

Andy: There's one called 'Please' that I hated when we wrote it. Really hated it. There's a track called, 'Till the Clouds Clear' which I think is as genius as Lamb gets. It's amazing and it came out of nowhere. 'Darkness' is the first track on the album.

Have you decided what the first single release will be?

Louise: We think it's gonna be a track called 'Wonder'. As we said the title of the album is possibly between 'Darkness' and 'Wonder'. I guess this album, more than ever, is about addressing the extremes of darkness and light - the ups and downs of life. Darkness is obviously exploring the more shadowy side of one's experience whereas 'Wonder' is the other extreme - looking at the joy of the tiniest things. It's a bit kitsch almost, it's almost exploding with joy! I quite like the fact that it's so over the top. It's almost too sweet.

And you'll be touring round the new album?

Andy: We're going to do a few dates in England, Europe then Australia. Then we're doing a stadium tour of Portugal, baby!

Louise: We're being a bit more selective about where we go and where we play for the reasons we were talking about before.

Andy: Yeah - Germany, if they want to see us, they can come to Belgium!