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Approaching the end of 2007, we spoke to these boys as the freshly signed act of Roadrunner Records. Even in the mere five months that have passed since then, Kids In Glass Houses have gone from strength to strength, securing fans countrywide, whilst sitting in one of the most sought after support slots of the year, alongside Paramore and New Found Glory. Plus, they threw out a few videos that reached the number one slot in many an MTV2 chart, as well as becoming a regular favourite on Radio 1. All in a day's work.

Today, we got to speak to bassist Shay on the eve of the release of their debut album 'Smart Casual' - a huge milestone in their career so far. It feels like the past two and half years of hard work and relentless touring, are finally paying off, but there's an air of certainty among us that shows this only marks the start of something new.

OS: Tonight's the first night of your first headlining tour of 2008. How does it feel to be finally back on the road?
Andrew Shay [bassist]: It's awesome! I think I've looked forward to this tour more than any other tour we've ever done. Just, the anticipation and stuff, since we haven't toured since the.. Paramore tour. Plus, that got cut short, so it was frustrating being at home. Now that we can finally come out and tour, and we've got an album to promote, it's really good; there's a really good vibe.

OS: How does it feel to be able to play a set full of new songs?
Shay: It's amazing! I mean, we've been holding it back for so long. Tonight, we're playing the entire album, and not missing a single song off it, so it's gonna be a bit of a challenge. I think it's probably one of the longest sets we've ever played, so it should be interesting.

OS: How are you feeling about the three bands playing tonight?
Shay: There's four actually! A band called Projects too. But, yeah, it's cool. We've played with Tonight is Goodbye a few times, and they're good boys. But actually, the Man United game is on the same time as Tonight is Goodbye, so I'm gonna be back and forth.. We've got our TV in here all set up, ready for it, so I can't miss it! But, Valencia are cool too - I'm glad they came over to support us.

OS: What happened regarding getting Valencia on the tour with you?
Shay: Well, we just got pitched a few names, just a few bands, and we were like, 'oh yeah, they'd be ideal', obviously because they were supposed to come over twice before. So, a lot of kids wanted to see them and we thought that'd be cool.

OS: Obviously your debut album is released on May 25th. How're you feeling about it all?
Shay: It's prettyyyy exciting. We put up a stream of it on NME.com, and the feedback we had from that was amazing, so hopefully it'll sell and people will buy it and enjoy it.

OS: And what's your favourite song?
Shay: At the moment - it changes a lot - but at the moment, 'Lovely Bones' is my favourite.

OS: Were you sound checking that earlier?
Shay: Yeah, yeah. We'll be playing it for the first time tonight - the first time it's ever been played live, so it might be a bit ropey.

OS: Are you nervous for the fans' reaction to the songs?
Shay: Yeeeah. To the songs live? I'm a bit worried that people might've heard it on NME.com, and then hear it live and say, 'hmm, that doesn't sound right! What're they doing?!' But, I'm just excited I guess. I've got enough faith in our music, so I just want people to hear it now.

OS: How're you feeling about the remastered versions of the old EP songs ['Easy Tiger', 'Give Me What I Want' and 'Raise Hell'?
Shay: Well, we actually rerecorded everything pretty much, apart from a few vocal harmonies that we kept in. One thing we were worried about was kind of, missing out on the same vibe as the orginals, the demos. I mean, 'Me Me Me'; the first time we recorded that we were really happy with it, and it could've gone on the album as it is. But, there's just slight differences; there's a better drum sound because obviously we did it in a better studio. I love them just the same!

OS: You were recently forced to change the titles of a few of your songs, and there was some outcry among fans. How do you feel about the controversy that was caused?
Shay: I don't know. People have their own right to be disheartened by it, or confused. But then, it's just a name: if you like the song, you like the song. Regardless of what it's called. The name changes had to happen though, and it was out of our control, so we just stepped back and let it happen. But if people want to be pissed off..

OS: Did you expect to receive a reaction like that?
Shay: Oh no. We were just like, 'people won't even notice!' But yeah, people weren't happy with us..

OS: As a band, you claim to have a huge variety of influences [everything from The Police, to Prince, to Glassjaw]. Do you feel that shines through on the new record?
Shay: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. That's the one kind of thing that we definitely nailed. It's obviously this rock album, but it has it's pop elements. We haven't written the same song twelve times; we've written.. a few different songs. But we used all of our influences and I think we've got some good tunes. Like, have you heard 'Pillow Talk'?
OS: Yeah.
Shay: That was kind of a surprise one of the album. We wrote it, not really considering it to be of album potential, but after we did, we realised that it could actually work really well. Then, when we recorded it, it brought it into a new life. I think the album wouldn't be the same without that song.

OS: In the build-up to your release, you've gained a lot of airplay on Radio 1, Kerrang, XFM and MTV. How does that feel?
Shay: It's really exciting. Like, my parents will be at work and then phone me to say we're on Radio 1 right now. So I'm like, 'yeah, wicked, cool', but they seem to get more excited than I am. I just try to take it with a pinch of salt; I mean, it's cool being on Radio 1, since it's where you 'need to be', kind of thing. But you don't need to count the plays, and be like 'ooh, we made three plays today!' or whatever. It should just be like, 'yeah, people like it.'

OS: Have you noticed much of a growth in your fan base since receiving some of the coverage?
Shay: Hopefully! Well, ticket sales have been pretty good this tour. That's kind of the definite: if people want to come see us, then they do like us. This tour's been kinda like a first test, since we've had videos on TV and stuff, but it shows that people are catching on to it.

OS: How was it shooting your music videos?
Shay: Good fun! The second one especially; the 'Give Me What I Want' video - not the 'Me Me Me' video. The 'Give Me What I Want' video was really fun. We did it one day, like, got up really early, finished really late, but it was just really.. to have fans in the video too, was really exciting.

OS: Did you guys come up with the video's concept?
Shay: Yeah, the original concept came from Aled. Then once the director got involved, it just kind of evolved from Aled's original idea, which was of a hotel party, with different rooms and stuff. It's a pretty cool video I think. It's quite different to what's our there too.

OS: Kids In Glass Houses claim to be a pop band for rock fans, but have you ever felt any pressure to change your style to fit in with a certain niche?
Shay: Well, no, we've always just written the songs we want to hear, or that we want to be going out and playing. You know, we're all fans of our band and we don't feel any pressure to sound a certain way, or act a certain way or do anything a certain way. We're just doing exactly what we want to do, and I think the album shows that. We could've.. well, I dunno.. I don't really know what I'm saying with this!
OS: But you don't feel any pressure to change?
Shay: No, no, we don't feel any pressure to change! When we're in the practice rooms, or writing, we don't stress out over it. We'll just go in there, write some songs. Some of them go well, some don't work out so well.

OS: What was it like to tour with Paramore and New Found Glory?
Shay: Pretty surreal! I mean, New Found Glory are one of my favourite bands ever, so to tour with them and play shows with them was just unbelievable.

OS: And how exactly did that eating contest with Conditions come about?
Shay: Well, they thought they could out-eat me.. Well.. [laughs] They did.

OS: We're guessing it ended in lots of piss-taking.. .
Shay: Well, we had to give up our hotel room..
OS: Oh, did you actually give up the hotel room!?
Shay: .. Yeahhh [laughter]

OS: Who nominated you to compete?
Shay: Well.. I nominated myself. They boys were encouraging me! Like, 'Yeah, you could definitely outeat him - I've seen you eat!" But, he was American.

OS: A few members of the band have begun some side projects. Can you tell us anything about those?
Shay: Well, I've heard Iain's new project 'Dirty Leaves'. Have you checked that out?
OS: Oh yes. [You can check it out here too.]
Shay: That's some pretty good stuff going on. I'm really into that. But, as far as Aled's stuff goes.. I've heard him do, um.. Well, no I haven't really heard any of Aled's yet.
OS: It seems to be all very 'bedroom jams'.
Shay: Yeah, yeah! I think he's just keeping it to himself and seeing what comes of it.
OS: But KIGH is definitely the main act?
Shay: Oh yeah, definitely! We just get sick of each other sometimes. I dunno: we're all musicians, and now obviously we're doing it for a living, so we've got some spare time, and we can play a lot of music.

OS: Does it feel strange to be able to say that you're doing this as a career now?
Shay: Yeah, it was like 'well, it could happen'. But now, we could be doing this for a long time. We're all pretty comfortable, and enjoying what we're doing. This is our first tour on a bus, that we're sharing with Valencia.

OS: How is the tour bus?
Shay: Yeah, it's good fun. I got a good sleep last night as well. It's just really good times for us at the moment, with this being our debut album tour, it doesn't get much better.

OS: It feels quite strange as fans to be at this point, after seeing the band for the past two years, so it must be strange for you guys.
Shay: Yeah, that's the thing! Even though it's after two years of touring off the EP, this could still be seen, to a lot of people, as early days. But, we've been here for a while: slogging away, doing the support shows. But, with our first album being out next week, this is kind of a new slate for us and it feels good.

OS: Are you looking forward to the Slam Dunk Festival?
Shay: [A very definite] Yes. Its gonna be a party. It's gonna be amazing; there's some good bands playing. There'll be some good hangouts, and hopefully it'll be sunny. I like Leeds, too.

OS: And how does it feel to be asked back to play Reading and Leeds Festivals again?
Shay: It feels good. I mean, last year was really amazing for us. So, we were just like 'will we get asked back this year?' Then it turns out that we're gonna be playing on the Radio 1 stage, which will be good fun.

OS: As a band that's got such a strong fan base, but hasn't released an album yet, do you feel as though the internet contributes a lot to your current level of success?
Shay: Yeah, yeah. The internet's helped us out so much, you can't deny it. It's done so much, but it's nice now to actually get an album out, twelve songs. Whereas, fans before, heard songs from the MySpace and could only listen to those. Plus, with the EP, we only pressed something like 2,500 copies, so not a lot of people have that. So, it's nice to say 'this is our album. This is Kids In Glass Houses'.

OS: So, will you guys continue to run your MySpace?
Shay: Yeah, definitely. It's good fun, and Aled enjoys chirps-ing!

OS: Finally, what have you got planned for the rest of the year?
Shay: Well, this summer's gonna be pretty busy. We're shooting our video for 'Saturday' as soon as we get off this tour. We're going to Japan, to play Supersonic Festival, as well as, obviously Reading and Leeds, Download Festival and a few other festivals. T in the Park! But, I think there may be one or two more that we're not confirmed on yet. But 2008 will just be all about tour. Hopefully this one will go well, and maybe another tour again in October. We'll see what happens!

Kids In Glass Houses' debut album 'Smart Casual'' is out now!

Special thanks to Lee Goldup, for allowing us to use some of his images from the show at Middlesbrough's Empire. Check out more of his images here and here.