Tim Hughes talks to Stornoway’s Brian Briggs who, despite a move to the wilds of Wales, insists he is still very much an Oxford artist

WITH a doctorate in duck ecology, Brian Briggs can justifiably claim to be the brainiest of band frontmen. He is also a huge lover of nature – something which feeds through into the music of his band Stornoway.

So when he chance came for the ornithology buff and his young family to leave Oxford and head to the coast, he didn’t think twice.

Brian, his wife Jane and two children Anne, three, and Evan, one, packed up the converted Renault Trafic camper van which serves as writing studio, headed west and are now holed up in a cottage on the rugged Gower peninsula in Wales, where, he says, he can write while soaking up the varied natural splendours of this area of outstanding natural beauty.

“We are still an Oxford band and the city is still very much our HQ,” he says when I ask if we’ve lost him to the Welsh. “Oxford has an amazing mix of people and things you can do while still being small. But we had a good chance to do this now while the children are small. And it’s a great chance for me to do some writing.

“We are both outdoorsy types too, and it’s great to be near the sea. It’s a fairly wild place, and there’s a great mix of habitats for birds – from salt marsh and beaches to cliffs and woods. We see birds here you would never see in Oxford.”

I caught up with Brian, 33, not on the beaches of South Wales but up in Glasgow, where they played a gig – just one night before the terrible events which took place in another part of the city on Saturday.

The tour sees them promoting a new EP, You Don’t Know Anything. Coming from a band whose members boast a Masters in Russian literature (Jonathan Ouin) a science degree (Oli Steadman) and whose third member, Oli’s brother Rob, had been offered a place at Birmingham University before they were signed by 4AD, the title is unintentionally germane. Heck, Brian’s own brother Adam, who joins the band live, is a doctor.

Considering the three-year gap between debut Beachcombers Windowsill, which reached number 14 in the album charts, and this April’s follow up Tales From Terra Firma, the record appears to have been released with indecent haste. But, says Brian, that’s the whole point.

“These are a bunch of songs we wanted to include on our last album but which would have felt a bit out of place. “They are from the same period of writing, which was a very productive time with lots going on in our lives.”

The songs, recorded in their ‘Storonstudio’ (a garage in East Oxford) also have a strong Oxford flavour. The Tumbling Bay refers to a bathing spot on a tributary of the Thames in West Oxford. While When You Come Down from Outer Space imagines a being from space arriving in Oxford.

“It’s a metaphor for the arrival of our first child,” he explains. “And the excitement of that. It’s overwhelmingly uplifting and has lots of Oxford references – name-checking the Covered Market, South Park and the Dreaming Spires.”

Another new track, Waiting on the Clock, is what Brian calls “a nostalgia trip”. “It’s about when I first arrived in the Oxford, working at the Jericho Cafe and meeting my true love who would eventually be my wife.”

The Sixth Wave, meanwhile, deals with environmental issues and concerns over mass extinctions – with explosions and the sound of forest fires.

“We are proud of these songs in different ways,” he adds. “It’s an oddball collection with some pop and some experimental moments. They are still fairly accessible, though, as all our music tends to be.”

It is also a sign of the band clearing the decks before starting work on their next long-player. “We wanted to start afresh on the next full-length album,” he adds. “We didn’t want to stick songs on it just to see if they fit in. We are going to be taking a different approach, with a producer. “And the timing seemed perfect with this tour – which will be our last for a while.”

And it has been well received by fans and tastemakers – being named album of the day on BBC6Music last week, and earning a good amount of radio play.

And, in its gentle introspective charm, it is typically Stornoway. “I hope it is, “says Brian. “We have our fans in mind most of all. We are not pushing it in the same way as we would another full length release,”

While the current tour comes nowhere near Oxford, the band are planning to return next year – and have promised something at least as special as their last shows in the city, which saw them packing out Oxford Town Hall for two consecutive nights.

“We have not forgotten our Oxford roots,” he says. “Playing the Town Hall was a real treat, and we wanted to play somewhere special again but didn’t have the right place on offer this time. “We will definitely do something in Oxford soon though.”

But that’s all in the future. First, he says, is the long, if not exactly arduous, task of writing the next album. And the solitude of the Gower is proving particularly conducive. “So far it has been nice,” says Brian. “I’ve been working on a few songs in the camper van. “I’ve always got something on the go so there is never a moment’s rest!”

CHECK IT OUT Stornoway’s new EP, You Don’t Know Anything, is out now. The band play the London Barbican on December 8