It's been a while since Thirteen Senses have been in the public eye but with the release of their new album Contact in April all that is about to change.

Lead singer and chief songwriter Will South is in relaxed mood as he talks to the Packet about his hopes for the new album and how he is looking forward to the first date of their tour in Falmouth.

It's been two years since the release of their gold selling debut The Invitation which sold over 100,000 copies and spawned the hit singles Thru the Glass and Into the Fire Will says the new album is a step up for the band who have come out with a much fuller and louder out and out rock album.

"I'm looking forward to the release of the new album which is a step up for us and is a lot more confident and slightly turned up. It's a fuller harder sound with more anger.

"When we were playing the first album live we found it dipped a little bit too much in energy towards the middle, that was one of the things that we wanted to work on for this album to have a bit more energy.

"We're looking forward to the gig in Falmouth it's our first there in a year. We did three nights at The Almeira at the end of last year and they were great. We did the new songs and a few of the old hits which went down well.

Although Will says the recording of the new album was a happy time the actual writing of the songs, at first, proved a little more difficult.

But once the band moved out of a rehearsal room and into a studio at their north London home things really started to fly.

"At first nothing was happening," said Will. "We couldn't work out what was going on. For some reason the creativity wasn't happening and we relocated to home and built a rehearsal room.

"I went through that whole it was a fluke, I can't do it anymore'. We needed to find the perfect way of writing. We started off in a rehearsal room for a bit and we got one song going in a month and a half, absolutely nothing. So we thought okay, this isn't really working' so we got the recording set up at home where we were able to really focus on everything, be really fastidious about these things. I think it was just finding that that gave us the ability to craft the songs to be exactly what we wanted a bit more."

During the summer the band sweated it out in the flat and from July through to the end of September they were on a roll.

Recording sessions with Coldplay producer Danton Supple were conducted over six months in several West London studios. They have emerged with an album that they are all proud of.

"It gives you a good window into our thinking," says guitarist Tom Welham. "The first album was very much this is our album, here are our songs, hope you like it' whereas this time around we really want you to listen to it and that's what it sounds like. It's a lot more urgent and a lot more forceful without just being turned up a couple of notches. We've tried to give it more impact."

"We mean business this time round," says Will. "It's a lot harder, a lot grittier. We want everyone to know who Thirteen Senses are."

"There's nervous excitement about it all. We are all really happy with the new album and hopefully other people will be too.

"Hopefully we will now have great success. We really want to have a go at America. We went to play the South by South West Festival in Austin, Texas when we first got signed but we haven't been back. Now we want to give it a go.

"I wouldn't want to do anything else but be in a band, it is a nice life. It is a dream job. Not many people get to do it, just being paid to be creative. If it all ended tomorrow I'd be happy and I'd just form a new band anyway."

New single "All the Love in Your Hands" is out on March 19 with the new album Contact out on April 2. The tour kicks off at the Princess Pavilions on March 7.

For a review of the new album click on the link below.