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Well, who would've known, back at the start of 2007, what would be in store for those five boys from the Welsh Valleys. Yet, I can safely say that Kids In Glass Houses have gone on to being one of the year's major success stories, and it truly feels deserved. After a year constantly on the road, two headlining tours, several major festival appearances and a newly recorded album, I think you'd have to agree. Going from appearing on the 'Give It A Name Introduces' tour, back in April, to being demanded to upgrade their Halloween headlining show at London's Islington Academy, they've so far gone from strength to strength; but this is only the beginning.
We were given the chance to catch up with Shay and Iain of the band when they hit up Middlesbrough Town Hall, supporting their Welsh buddies (..did I honestly just say buddies?) Funeral For A Friend.

OS: How has the Funeral For A Friend tour been so far?
Iain Mahanty [Guitar]: Really good. It's been cool.
Shay, Andrew [Bass]: Yeah, yeah, the shows so far have been really good. The crowds have been really energetic and really up for us.
Iain: Funeral are all good guys too, so being able to hang out with them has been really good.
Shay: And the tour's seemed really chilled. I mean, look at us today [gestures to Joel, who I think is half asleep on a sofa in the corner of the room, and laughs] There's hardly any stress or anything.
Iain: It's just good.
OS: So, it's a good way to end the year?
Shay: Yeah, definitely.
Iain: The CIA show at Christmas will be jokes as well.

OS: And, you just recently signed to Roadrunner Records. What does it feel like to finally be signed?
Shay: It feels like.. It does feel a bit weird.
Iain: It kinda feels the same, because we're still doing what we were doing anything but... I can't really explain it. It feels a bit different. It's nice to know that we've got a label backing and stuff.
Shay: yeah, it's nice to know that someone cares enough to put their time and effort, and obviously money, into our band; something that we started and something that we enjoy doing.

OS: How did the deal actually come about, since some would say you're not a typical "Roadrunner band"?
Shay: There was obviously some other labels, but they [Roadrunner] just seemed to be the most keen and they seemed to understand us. The other labels, you could tell they were blatently trying to cash in, but they saw as a more of a nice project and it seems like they're going to enjoy working with us, rather than trying to find a quick fix, get big and make money off us.
Iain: They're definitely like a career label.
OS: Yeah, because they've had such huge bands on that label. Will it still be quite free, and you'll be able to do what you want to do?
Shay: Yeah! That's the thing. When we were negotiating contracts with labels, we always said to ourselves that we wanted creative control over everything, because it is ours and we didn't want to be swayed in any way by labels. They like what we're doing and they're not trying to change us in any way.

OS: So, you just finished recording your debut album..?
Shay: Yep, we finished tracking the album the day before we left for the Funeral tour. It's currently being mixed at the moment, and we can't wait to get back and hear it.

OS: And what was actually recording like?
Iain: Awesome, because we were doing it with our mate Romesh (Dodangoda), down in Longwave Studios - like, The Blackout did their record there. And we're best mates with him.
Shay: It was just really comfortable and he knew exactly what we wanted. Iain: Yeah, he knew the sounds of everything. It was just like hanging out basically just chilling. We all went a bit mental though and got a bit of cabin fever. But, apart from that, it was awesome.

OS: So, what can we expect from it?
[They both look at each other, grinning]
Iain: I dunno! I don't know to say, like, we're super proud of it and we think it sounds awesome. It's twelve good songs and there's only three EP tracks going on there.
OS: Was it a hard to decide which ones would be appearing?
Shay: We didn't want to stick all five EP tracks on the album, although we do think the EP tracks are strong tracks. But, we wanted to progress and we had songs written that we thought were better than them.
Iain: Yeah, there's a definite progression from the EP, to the album and I think those three tracks that we've picked fit in best with the record as whole. They sound better rerecorded as well. We spent a lot of time trying to capture the same vibe of them, but make it sound better.
Shay: Yeah, because a lot of bands that tend to rerecord tracks from an EP for an album tend to do it wrong. Then, people are like, "Oh, I prefer that old version." Iain: That was probably the most important thing: making sure the vibe and the feel of the songs was exactly the same.

OS: Looking back, what was it like to do the headlining tour in October?
Iain: It was a bit weird, because at the start of the year, I didn't really see that coming.
Shay: It's always nice when people come to shows and when you're out on the road, and you ask Pablo [their manager] how many tickets you've sold and he's just "about two hundred and fifty", it's just like "...what?!" You know, two hundred and fifty kids coming to see us!
Iain: It's pretty mind-blowing, but it's awesome.
Shay: I mean, we played Islington Academy and played the main room and everything, because we got upgraded and it was just like... what the fuck? We've played shows to nobody and to play a London show and pretty much sell out the venue is insane.

OS: Have you grown to prefer headlining tours?
Shay: I think I prefer headlining, yeah.
Iain: Yeah, I think I prefer headlining shows because it's people essentially coming to watch you.
Shay: Yeah, yeah. We do get, sometimes, a bit complacent when we're headlining because it feels like we don't have that much to prove. I know it's a bad thing to say, but, obviously when you're on support tours... Tonight we're just gonna be going out and these are Funeral For A Friend's fans, so we're just gonna try and win up a few people.
Iain: And you get to party harder if you're supporting! Because there's less responsibility, and you can start drinking earlier.
Shay: You can just come off stage, have a few beers and watch Funeral For A Friend! So, it's good.

OS: Who's been your favourite band to tour with this year?
Shay: The Blackout's always cool, because they're just like our friends. A band called Said: Mike who we took out on our headlining tour, and The New 1920s. We love touring with the bands that we know, but we've also met a lot of cool bands too.
Iain: Like, Between The Trees, who were really safe. Hundred Reasons were all pretty rad dudes too. There hasn't been a band this year that I haven't enjoyed touring with.
Shay: Yeah, Beat Union were cool, when we did the Give It A Name Introduces tour.

OS: And what was like to play all the major festivals this year?
Iain: That was... Reading. I still can't, I can't even comprehend it!
Shay: Reading was just really special to us. We were on in the early afternoon, mid-afternoon and the tent was just like, absolutely random.
Iain: And there was Download, and I have never partied that hard in my life.
OS: Was it hard playing to that audience at Download?
Iain: Download was actually alright! It was really cool. We thought it was gonna be, and that we were gonna get bottled and shit like that, but I think we were lucky and on the same time as Napalm Death, or Stone Sour.
Shay: It was good weekend! We spent the whole time there: we went up on the Thursday night, because it was obviously the first festival we'd played. So we went up on the Thursday night, partied pretty much the whole time and played Sunday afternoon with a massive hangover. But we loved every second of it!

OS: What's been the hightlight of this year then?
Iain: I'm gonna go withhh.. Islington Academy.
Shay: Yeah, that was probably the best thing we've done this year.
Iain: Just because all the festivals were amazing - and Reading was unbelievable - but getting one of your shows upgraded, and then almost selling the bigger room out, it was just amazing. And it was such a good day!
Shay: Also, the fact that we recorded our album this year and that blows my mind. It sounds really good, but when you're in a band, you don't ever think you're actually gonna record an actual full-on proper album and have it sounds as good as it does. And that's something I'm really proud of and I can't wait to get home to listen to it.
Iain: I can't wait to hear it. We've only heard it in bits, because Ramesh is like, "No! You're not hearing it til it's finished. Let me do my job and fuck off."
Shay: We would finish a track and say, "Let's have a listen then," "Um, nah. You have to wait to buy it, son."
Iain: "You've got to buy a copy. Off me!"

OS: Did you ever think you'd really have done all this stuff, by the end of the year?
Iain: No, I kinda hoped - I was gonna say 'hoped and dreamed' but that sounds gay - I kinda wished for it to happen, and it has happened.
Shay: Like, last year we really didn't do much. We played a few shows and wrote a few good songs, then this time last year we got a booking agent, so we were pretty much on tour from January. That was when it really started looking up and it helped us to be doing something really cool. We were on tour with Hundred Reasons in January for a month and we were just like, "Yeah, we could get used to this."
OS: And then you just didn't leave the road?
Iain: Pretty much!
Shay: We had a quiet summer, because of the festivals.
Iain: No one really tours over the summer, so we just did the few festivals. I just didn't think we'd be doing Reading, but we did.
Shay: At the start of the year, my actual one and only goal was to play Reading and Leeds. I was just like, "As long as I play Reading and Leeds, I don't care when we're on playing beside a stage. All I wanted to do was play it. I've been to Reading a few times and it's just something that I've always wanted to do, and we actually got to do it, which blew my mind.

OS: So, what's next for you guys, in 2008?
Iain: Umm, a fuckload more touring, I guess. Just more of the same! Hopefully, we'll do some festivals again, but maybe some different ones, like V and stuff like that. But, we're not really sure. We haven't got a gameplan.
Shay: We have got a gameplan, but it hasn't been fed back to us just yet.
Iain: Yeah, yeah. Our label and our management have been talking and discussing. The good thing about that is we can tell them what we want to do and we've got complete control basically. So, I guess we're just gonna tour and promote the album as much as we can.
Shay: The album's set to be released early May.
Iain: And we've got a bunch of singles off that.
OS: Have you got any idea what they're gonna be?
Shay: The first single's 'Easy Tiger', followed by 'Me Me Me'. Then, once the album's released, we'll hopefully put two newer singles out, even though 'Easy Tiger' and 'Me Me Me' will be very much new to some people.

OS: Do you expect to be picked up by radio with new releases?
Iain: Hopefully. We don't really know. You can't really tell whether or not you will; it's just a case of whether the DJs are into it. But, Daniel P has been so fucking good to us and hopefully he'll still be backing us.
Shay: Yeah, and Zane Lowe's been pretty cool. Plus, XFM have really, really helped us out, especially with the XFM Launch in South Wales, it's really helped us.

OS: Even with just going to the shows, you can tell that you guys are getting bigger, so what does it feel like to notice that?
Iain: It's awesome: you can't complain! It means things are going in the right direction and that's always good.
Shay: It means kids are getting it and kids are enjoying it and they seem to be coming back for more.

OS: And, what was it like to be voted Kerrang's Best Unsigned Band, by the public?
Iain: I was quite shocked, because there was loads of bands we know posting shit, but we were just like, "Oh safe, we'll post a bulletin tomorrow" and kept saying that until all of a sudden we were like, "Shit, it's too late."
Shay: I think last year we cam fifth or something? And last year, we were really chuffed with it, but this year, we were number one! Then, we get signed.
Iain: I kinda feel like we're cheating people a little bit... But, I guess we were unsigned for most of 2007. Very much unsigned!

You can check out Kids In Glass Houses on tour with Paramore and New Found Glory in February!