Many bands who start out in the rainy, band-packed surroundings of Manchester, and even the UK, are resigned to the idea of old fashioned relentless plugging for recognition, compressed into the back of a less than glamorous transit van while whipping up new material on the hoof.

Typically, the prospect of branching out into America is a distant dream and an ambition which would involve no small amount of luck, not to mention money.

This, however, is where The Maple State break that average Northern band mould. Having been together since 2004, they've already attracted interest from both sides of the pond on the strength of a three track EP.

They also enjoyed a stint in America in 2005 working with Motion City Soundtrack producer Sean O'Keefe and are currently in the process of racking up songs for their anticipated debut album, set for release later this year.

The Maple State have, unquestionably, packed an impressive amount of activity into a short space of time. With their feet firmly back on British soil, they take some time out to answer a few questions about their story so far, and the promising times ahead for the band.

What have you been up to lately?

We've been really busy the last few months; we recorded our single just before Christmas and have been writing for our album through January. Just last week we toured the UK with +44, which is the new project from Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker (ex-Blink182). It was an amazing week as we played our biggest venues to date, like the Brixton academy. All in all 2007 has been going well so far.

You formed in Manchester a few years ago. Are you all from the city and how did you meet and get a band together?

We all live in Stockport except John who lives out in Buxworth. But its only about 20 minutes away so it was the ideal place for us to get shows when we were starting out. We got together about 2 and half years ago now, when we all went to college together.

You went to America a couple of years ago to record and play gigs. How did they treat you over there?

Everyone we met and worked with were amazing to us, the shows we did were with Motion City Soundtrack and their guitarist Josh Cain put us up in his front room for about two weeks. They helped us with equipment and transport; they treated us better than we could have ever asked for. In terms of audiences, the fact that we were from England was a big bonus-apparently they love our accents! But we got a great response and even now we get myspace messages and emails from people who saw us out there.

Do you prefer America to England in terms of working and recording?

The recording we did in America wasn't ideal, we were on a really short time scale and our budget was pretty much non existent, so we had to rush through a lot of things which we'd like to have spent more time on. But on the whole, people seem a lot more open minded about music. The UK music industry seems very hung up on genres and images, where as in America the people we worked with just took us at face value and didn't question where we were coming from.

Has Working With The likes of Motion City Soundtrack influenced your sound or outlook?

I wouldn't say it's influenced our sound, but it has definitely influenced our outlook and the way we handle ourselves as a band. We've known them for nearly two years now and the whole time they've been giving us advice and helping out. I think most of all, their work ethic and ability to stay grounded has definitely been an influence on us and shown that you don't need a gimmick or a trend to be successful. If you write good songs and work hard then you'll get there in the end.

Will you keep on coming back to Manchester?

Definitely! On the +44 tour last week we played Manchester Academy 1, where we've been going since we were 14. It was the smallest date on the tour but it was by far my favourite as I've seen so many bands I love in that venue and finally getting to play it was amazing. But generally we love playing in Manchester, there are people who have come to every show we've done since we started. I don't think we'll ever tire of it.
Do you find your influences are fundamentally static or do they change a lot?

They're constantly changing, there are some bands like the Get Up Kids or Hot Rod Circuit who inspired us to start this band, and their music is always in the back of our minds as we're writing. But as the four of us write together, whatever we're listening to individually at the time will influence our ideas and what we write.

Your sound started out as quite punky and raw, whereas it's now evolved into what people are terming as 'emo'. This is a term which has been subject to a lot of stereotyping lately. Are you comfortable with the 'emo' label and do you think it's more to do with sound or image?

Emo is a pointless label in this country because no one has any idea what it is and calling a band emo is about as vague as calling someone a rock band- it's a completely redundant word. But we love bands like Braid and Cap'N Jazz and the Get up Kids, and these bands were emo bands when emo wasn't even a word. So, to be called it in that sense doesn't bother us. But if someone whose knowledge of emo is limited to what the mainstream media prints then they might think we're going to sound like My Chemical Romance because of how we're labelled, which is just useless.

You've received some impressive attention and accolades in the past, including Best Newcomers by Big Cheese Magazine. As a relatively new band, how much does press opinion matter to you?

I wouldn't say we worry too much about press opinions; we don't really fit into any obvious category as a band so we can't expect people to review our songs in the same frame of mind in which we write them. We've had some really weird comparisons to bands we've never heard, so it's strange to see what people hear in our music. However, some of the trends that have continued throughout the single reviews have helped us decide what our next release should be, so in that sense press opinions can be useful.

Where do you stand on Myspace? Do you check and edit your own page or get someone else to do it?

We love MySpace, and remember getting our account years ago when there were only about 50,000 people on there. So, it helped us straight away in terms of getting music out and spreading the word about tours. I can't say I'm too keen on the bands who whore themselves and act like rock stars because they have a whole load of friends despite never having played a show. But for hard working bands who would've found a way to do it anyway, then it's just a great extra tool. We still manage our account, we check it every day and try to reply to all the messages and comments we get.

What is next for the band? Will you be playing any festivals this summer?

We have a lot coming up over the next few months. We're going to record the new single next week and try to get it out as soon as possible. We'll also be touring throughout March around the UK then hopefully we'll be heading back to America to tour in July. If we get the chance to play festivals, then we'd love to do it- other than that we're just continuing to write and demo for our album, which should be out later this year.

The Maples State's new single 'Joanna' is out on 16th February on High Voltage Records.