To The Marrow Born.

It took just one record for hot ‘n’ heavy blues rockers Band Of Skulls to court the United States, silencing every critic who prophesied the death of guitar music at the beginning of the decade, but while the formula was certainly working, the band wanted a redraft. When it came time to dream up a second album, the Southampton rockers had made up their minds; bigger shows called for a bigger sound.

“It was sort of made to order, really, as the band progressed,” guitarist and vocalist Russell Marsden tells me. “I think we were lacking a few things from the first record.”
In spite of the change in pace, the band haven’t lost their knack for a bone-rattling riff. Having heard the new album, Sweet Sour, I have to ask; how many guitars were harmed in the making of the record?
“None,” Marsden assures me. “But one of the amps did get jumped up and down on top of by all of us! We were trying to recreate some problems we had in Bonnaroo with the amps shaking on stage with the volume of the back line. It was controlled violence!”
For all its fearless guitarplay and freakout moments, Sweet Sour will surprise listeners with some stripped-back acoustic numbers.
“There were songs on the first record that had those elements to them as well,” Marsden says, “so I don’t think we’re taking it too far, we’re not going off into free jazz odysseys just yet. If anyone says, ‘What are you doing quiet songs for? You don’t do quiet songs!’ we can point to two records and go, ‘Oh, but we do!’ We’re sort of creating our own context.”
Of course, Band Of Skulls have shocked us before, by performing in a chapel in Kerry for the soon-to-be-aired Other Voices (“We brought some rock ‘n’ roll to the little church, which felt slightly dangerous!” Marsden laughs) and covering Example’s chart-topping pop hit ‘Changed The Way You Kissed Me’ (hand-picked by their manager’s 14 year-old daughter, no less) for BBC’s Live Lounge.
More expected was a tour with The Black Keys, who share the band’s penchant for an intoxicating riff.
“The timing of it is really good for us, it introduced a lot of new people to the band as the new record comes out. And we get to see The Black Keys every night, so it’s not been a bad week!”
If there’s one thing Band Of Skulls and The Black Keys have in common, it’s getting flack for licensing their music to TV, film and commercials. Aucherbach and Carney reason that without the help of the odd car manufacturer, they simply couldn’t have kept going; how does Marsden feel about the controversial topic of “selling out”?
“I share the Keys’ idea,” he says. “I know that what we did on the last record made it possible for us to make a second record. I think if people have a problem with bands making enough money to survive but they don’t want to buy a record, they just want to get it for free, then they’re getting a bit mixed up. Maybe you’re not happy with your favourite band doing a song for an advert but then you probably wouldn’t be happy with going to work every day and not getting paid. It just makes it all possible. That’s how we’ve survived and even for bigger bands, it makes their world possible.”

Band Of Skulls play the Academy, Dublin on February 26. Sweet Sour is out now on Electric Blues Recordings.