Photo: Wild Beasts

Whether you call it baroque'n'roll, art-funk, or emo-arena music, Wild Beasts' sound is completely unique and instantly memorable. That goes for their third album, Smother, which comes out tomorrow; although not as grandiose, the record replaces it with slow-building anthems that promise to be the soundtrack to everything from Saturday night make-out sessions to Sunday morning brunch. Bassist and singer Tom Fleming took a break from wrapping his sister's birthday present (no joke) to catch ELLE up on what this London by-way-of-Kendal, England, band has been up to.

ELLE: The band's sound has really evolved on Smother; was that something you set out to do, or did it happen organically?
TF: I think in the case of this record there was a decision about [it]. What do we want to be touring? What do we want to be doing to people at shows? We made the decisions to make something softer, more delicate. As far as the songs are concerned, it is very organic. We did a lot of taking away, a lot of things by chance. There's an element of amateurism about it, which I think is important; there are a lot of electronic instruments, which we were new to, like samplers and synthesizers. What you're hearing on record is our fondling.

ELLE: When do you know you're ready for a new album?
TF: In an ideal world it wouldn't happen in such a regimented process, but as a musician you need to keep making things. We built upon some signposts, but the main bulk of it was done very quickly. Although we may not sound like it, we come from a real DIY ethos; doing things yourself, trying not to be afraid, and trying to do things in an incorrect way is quite important.

ELLE: There are so many literary references in your songs; what's the last great book you read?
TF: The last great book I read was The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. It's about 100 pages long, extraordinarily bleak...it's funny, but only because you turn the lens back on yourself. With touring you're always together, [so] it's nice to have your own world to retreat to.

ELLE: The band has both big festivals and smaller club dates this summer—do you prefer one over the other?
The thing is, I'm a little bit of an idealist; obviously, realistically, it's better to play to the more people you can, but I think the optimum audience is one. But I have to remember that whatever size audience it is, everyone is having their own experience if you're playing well. You've got to remember that it's not a faceless crowd.

ELLE: What bands are you looking forward to seeing this summer during the tour circuit?
TF: I heard Tyler, the Creator, their single and the Bastard album, [and] it's like, What is this? To me that sounds like a new generation coming through, kids who grew up around music software and electronics so it's just normal. It's quite bracing; especially in this country, there's a safety net in terms of what they want you to hear, and that's not what the music is.

ELLE: Is the music scene in UK pretty dull these days?
TF: I think things play very safe in this country, because it's a very small country and it's almost all centered in London in a very damaging way. Things get hyped before they have a chance to become anything interesting, and a lot of bands get swallowed up, with a ball of mediocrity around it. It's a better situation now than a few years ago. When we started in 2007, it was a pretty horrible time. There are some wonderful diamonds in the riverbed, but it's like anything, an industry first and foremost. I think people were confused by our band, to be honest with you, because we were very out-of-step with what was going on. We were very uncool, just because we didn't know any better. Luckily we're allowed to do that, our label has been supportive, we've had good people around us, we didn't get dragged into the whole hype thing, and I think that was really good for us. This doesn't feel like a bubble about to burst.