WITH Boy Kill Boy having a new album coming out on Monday, singer and guitarist, Chris Peck, explains how he is looking forward to its release.

By Andy Welch

BOY Kill Boy are a four-piece from Leytonstone, East London, consisting of Chris Peck, keyboardist Pete Carr, drummer Shaz and bass player Kev Chase.

The band got their name after mishearing the name of another band Boy Called Roy.

They released their debut single Suzie in May, 2005, followed by a couple more increasingly successful releases that year.

Debut album, Civilian, was released in May, 2006 to good reviews and reached No 16 in the album chart. The band backed up their album with a string of live dates around the world, all to rave reviews.

The band release their second album, Stars And The Sea, on Monday and have a single, Promises, out now. They are also currently on tour supporting the Enemy. A full UK tour and festival appearances will be announced soon.

We caught up with Chris just after soundcheck in Stoke.

For more details, go to www.myspace.com/boykillboy or the official site www.boykillboy.com

ARE YOU NERVOUS ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM COMING OUT?

I am, this time around, but it's natural to be like that. If you care about something, you want it to do as well as possible. We've done our job. We made the record and it sounds great. We're touring all over the place at the moment, trying to reach as wide an audience as possible, so I guess it's up to other people now. As far as the album goes, I'm really proud of it and I'm looking forward to dispelling myths about the band.

MYTHS?

Yeah, there are a few. I think we've had a rough time of it as far as luck goes. We've really had to slog at it, in an old-school way. Somewhere along the line, people started to think we're a band that we're not, an emo band. I think the name had something to do with that, there were a lot of similarly named bands out when we came out. The name for some people means emo. At a lot of our early gigs, we'd get loads of emo kids turning up, then leaving halfway through.

WHAT'S THE REACTION BEEN LIKE ON THE CURRENT TOUR TO THE NEW SONGS?

Amazing. It's been surprisingly amazing. Obviously, it's good to try out new songs but if you're touring, people want to hear the songs they know, especially the younger kids, who just want to go crazy. If you start putting in too much new material it can sometimes be a problem but, so far, it's been embraced so much that now we're playing about half the album at the gigs.

HOW DOES THE NEW ALBUM DIFFER FROM CIVILIAN?

It's more confident, definitely. More grown up, more musical if that's not a ridiculous thing to say and more diverse. My mate said it's like driving a Ferrari at 20mph, which I don't fully understand. I guess he means that instead of running around trying to impress everyone and going flat out, now we've got a quiet confidence about us and are willing to take our time. The album sounds like Boy Kill Boy but like Boy Kill Boy have grown up and worked out what they're doing.

YOU WORKED WITH PRODUCER DAVE SARDY IN LA FOR THIS ALBUM. HOW WAS THAT?

It was a very good experience. It's a bit like living the dream isn't it, going to Hollywood. Our record label said we could go to the middle of nowhere in Ireland or Hollywood. We said 'can we go to Hollywood, if that's all right?' but the decision was all about Dave Sardy really. Originally, he was going to do half the album but after we played the new songs to him live, he said he was doing the whole thing and altered his schedule to fit us in. He's a great bloke, really knows his stuff and we all got along really well. We recorded a lot of the album in Sunset Sound, where the Doors, Prince and Led Zeppelin have all worked. It's amazing to be part of that history.

THE SINGLE PROMISES - TELL US ABOUT IT.

I wrote it on tour in America. We were travelling with Echo And The Bunnymen. They're fans of ours, which is great. There's a definite connection there, which is rare, almost spiritual in a way. The song's about not being afraid of showing your roots. It kicked off on the back of a tour bus, driving along the east coast of America. It was one of those songs that's really quick to write. It's a figurehead of the album too, like the lady on the front of a ship. It speaks for the whole album, definitely.