"You could never accuse Blue States of being predictable. With this third album under the Blue States moniker, Andy Dragazis has reinvented Blue States once again, this time as a trio, introducing the vocals of co-songwriter and guitarist, Chris Carr. 'The soundings' distils Blue States' surging, nostalgia-tinged melodies and wraps them up into suave and moody pop songs, showcasing a remarkable dark-horse talent in Chris Carr's provocative lyrics and vocals." - Memphis Industries press release, 2004.

Blue States release new single 'Across the Wire' this coming Monday 31st May, followed by the band's new album 'The Soundings' on June 15th. Both are released through Memphis Industries.

In the meantime, check out the Blue States website.

Afternoon, how are things?

Good thanks.

'The Soundings' sees quite a strong change in direction, especially with the introduction of Chris Carr's vocals - was this a case of deliberately trying to distance yourself from your previous incarnation and coming across too predictable? Change is always good...

It's obviously a change in direction in terms of the sound, but it's not my intention to distance myself from previous albums. I wanted to make Blue States more of a group and getting Chris and Jon involved was a pretty natural progression as we'd been playing together in the live band for three years. Chris writing the vocals took the album in a certain direction, but we all wanted to do something a little rawer and strip back the sound a little.

How do you feel your fanbase will respond to the new sound?

Well I hope they like it, but we're prepared for people to question it. The way I look at it is I set my stall out with 'Man Mountain' by making a different album to 'Nothing Changes', and 'The Soundings' is a change again. But if I made another similar album I would probably get criticised for not evolving 'Blue States', so you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. Hopefully people will like the album in its own right.

Did your move to London influence the recording sessions in any way? Busy city living lifestyle can change a man...

Being in London obviously has had an effect as instead of looking out a window onto fields, I'm looking out onto London town. The biggest influence on the sound was the noise from the building work next door, which was one of the reasons we had to dirty up the sound.

Do you solely take charge of song-writing duties or do you involve the members of your live band?

Most of the songs started with me but Chris wrote all the vocal and lyrics, and everyone played and wrote bits and pieces.

Is it different writing strictly instrumental tracks as opposed to vocal led tracks? The vocals must take away some of the musical emphasis?

Not really, as all the songs started out as instrumentals before developing into vocal songs. Chris would then take it away and re-arrange it and change a few things to make it make sense for vocals. I treat vocal tracks the same way as instrumental.

For the first time only, you add your own vocals to new b-side 'Atomic 79' - how come you didn't do all the vocals for 'The Soundings', or does the idea of being a heart-throb singer not do it for you?

I'm saving my voice.

Is there any pressure to follow-up the huge success that was 'Man Mountain' and 'Nothing Changes Under The Sun'? Afterall, the latter sold 30,000 copies...

Not really, we're in a privileged situation really. I'm doing what I want to do, earning a living and able to carry on making albums. I don't feel pressure, I'm like a rock.

What made you return to Memphis Industries after the release of 'Man Mountain' on XL?

We just can't bear to parted from them, we like Memphis. They always have crumpets in the office as well.

Apart from the festivals, do you have any plans to tour the new album?

There will be a Uk tour late summer, some European dates and a US tour later in the year. We're doing Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds amongst others. We're looking forward to getting out on tour again, it's been a while.

Your releases always have quite striking cover sleeves, is art an important factor to you?

Yeah it's always been something I've always spent some time thinking about, it's always nice to buy an album with a memorable cover. If you think back to albums that you've brought over the years the ones with the good covers always stick in your mind.

Well, a big thank you for your time and we wish you the best of luck with the album launch.

No problem, the pleasure was all mine.