The good/bad news is that he’s so determined to finish it off that for the forseeable future he won’t be doing any gigs, telly or press.
Explains Damien: “I’ve really got some momentum at the moment. I've moved straight on to the next record and I’m anxious to press on with that, so I'm putting aside any notions of tours or interviews for the time being. With 9 we didn’t actually do that much recording, but it was spread out over a period of time. Much of it came about by accident. I don’t know if I’m just one of those people, I just follow my nose and end up somewhere where I really want to be.”
Having revealed that he went through two titles before settling on 9 – A Hen Will Sit On An Unfertilized Egg and You Love Her, You Even Love The Shit You Hate About Her – Damo goes on to enthuse about the atmosphere in the studio.
“We weren’t really a band when we recorded O whereas on this record everybody was pretty much involved from the beginning,” he says. “From the touring that we’ve done together everyone has a more intuitive feel as to what we like and what suits the songs.
The key event that got the record finished was probably the band getting frustrated with waiting around for me. It's one thing somebody on the outside saying, 'Oh, when's he ever gonna put out another record?' But it's another thing when the band members sort of walk away from you with a sense that they don't believe that you're ever going to do it. I think it was in that moment that I kind of had that classic feeling of when someone tells you that you can't do something. I usually take that as a challenge and I like to prove to the person that I can! That was probably one of the biggest things that actually got this record going. I'd say that was the key in a way, because it was after that that I really knuckled down. It sounds really immature, but then writing songs is immature.”
The album coming out on November 6 is a very different to the one that Rice originally imagined.
“I started with the notion that this album was going to be a 'heavier' record than the last,” he concludes. “We went to record a load of the heavier tracks, but then we put down something like 'Grey Room,' listened back and went 'ooh, we like that'. And then we put '9 Crimes' down and we really liked that. When I played tracks back in the studio I was just drawn to certain songs. It was like, that song to me is just better than that song, it just is. Or the recording is better, or I want to listen to it and I want to listen to it again and then I want to listen to it again and again. I find sometimes that when things are a little bit too premeditated they don’t work. This album is mostly accidents, that’s the way it feels. But beyond any preconceived notions this has ended up being, from my point of view, a collection of songs I feel I can listen to.”