After a solid year touring their stunning debut album Hither Thither, Waterford's O Emperor are preparing to round of 2011 with three shows in Cork, Dublin and Waterford.

Once that is done, 2012 will not only find the five-piece continuing work on that all-important sophomore effort, but also taking their sound farther afield with Hither Thither hitting shelves across Europe.

The release will be handled by new German label K & F Records. Frontman Paul Savage took time out from the studio to tell Hot Press how the band hooked up with K & F.

"It came about last year through our booking agent," Paul explains. " He was working with an agent in Germany and, between the two of them, they booked us a tour of Germany at the start of last year. That booking agent was friends, and involved with, the label so it was one of those vague, friend-of-a-friend kind of things. Pretty organic. They're a very small label – in their infancy, like ourselves, so we're just trying it out. It's more of a stepping stone to try and network and get a bigger release for the second album."

Hither Thither will be available in six countries, and throughout Europe digitally.

"At the moment, there's a single going out in January and the album will be out in February. In terms of territories, the physical release will be out in Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland and then digitally available everywhere, including the UK."

At the moment, the Choice Music Prize nominees are hard at work on a follow-up and trying to pull off the trick of juggling live performance, promotion and recording.

"It's weird in a way, going from recording the second one to promoting the first one," Savage admits. "But it's still a cool experience to do that. We had a couple of mini UK and European dates during the year, so it's quite exciting to do it properly with an actual release this time."

Fans can expect the new album to drop this time next year.

"The plan would be to have it out by the end of 2012. It's going very well. We're recording with a really nice engineer, Christian Best, down here in Cork where we're living. We pop in, do some things and see what happens. Our deadline is a long way away, we have next year to record. We've a lot of ideas that we're trying out while we're in the studio. It's nice that way – to put them down as they happen and have them nice and fresh. Sometimes then you come back and realise that it's not that good! It's a little haphazard at the moment but hopefully that will breed something that's a little bit different to the last album."

To celebrate the European deal, the guys have finally recorded fan favourite 'Some Small Matter' and made it available for free. Check it out below:

Some Small Matter by O Emperor