STORNOWAY'S headline set on Sunday at the Deer Shed Festival must have seemed a million miles away when the phone rang at Brian Briggs's house.

"I'm at home on the Gower Peninsula, a big surfer's spot on the Welsh coast," he said.

Brian, the band's singer, lyricist and guitarist, was taking the chance fora breather before the festival circuit beckoned, after working on Stornoway's next album.

"We're something like two thirds of the way through recording it," he said. "We did the first few songs at Moles in Bath, but sadly that studio got burned in a fire in the club below. They had to fill the studio with water, so that was sad, but it was a fun place to record."

Moles was "lively", as Brian recalls: "It seemed to be the epicentre of everything in Bath, so everyday we would find a reason to go into the club."

Recording sessions for the Oxford-based band continued in contrasting circumstances. "We did the opposite of being at Moles. We went deep into the Cotswolds; a studio owned by George Shilling, who had worked with lots of Creation bands, including on Songs From Northern Britain, my favourite Teenage Fanclub album – and he did some work on their Grand Prix record too."

Stornoway's band members camped out, right next to the Four Shire Stone, again an experience far removed from the Moles recordings.

"Bath had been residential, but when we were in the country, we did some bits of acoustic guitar in the tent and harmony vocals in the camper van, as there's a great acoustic in there," says Brian.

"George Shilling's wife is a professional caterer, so she was cooking us these incredible meals, such as seabass, and we'll be returning there shortly, which will pretty much finish the album, with just one more session afterwards to fit in with Gil's availability and ours, as we're playing the summer festivals."

The "Gil" in question is the legendary producer Gil Norton, whose past clients include Patti Smith, Foo Fighters and Pixies.

"After last year's Tales From Terra Firma and the oddball collection, You Don't Know Anything, which was a bit of a cheat as it was songs left over from Terra Firma, we decided to do something quite different this time round. So we're recording with a producer for the first time," says Brian.

"Which for this album means the usual range of striking instrumentation, arrangements, and wild imagery, but with a fresher than ever outdoor pop simplicity."

Working with Norton has been "exciting".

"His experience has definitely helped a lot, but also we just wanted to try having a producer as we'd done the first three albums ourselves, to see how it worked," says Brian.

"We also knew we wanted the sound to be simple and less richly layered. Having to work in a studio where time is limited has worked really well, as we've worked at a good pace, not having to worry about the sound balance etc."

Already in the can for an album that will be released next January or February are Lost Youth, Sing With Our Senses, The Road You Didn’t Take, Man On The Wire and Love Song Of The Beta Male. "We're probably going to play Lost Youth at Deer Shed as it's a really upbeat, poppy song, just right for festivals," says Brian.

Stornoway headline the Deer Shed Festival, at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, on Sunday night.