Speaking ahead of their self-titled second studio album release, Augustines front man Billy McCarthy tells us about writing at his former grade school, the pressure he feels living up to their popular debut album 'Rise Ye Sunkern Ships' and the importance of music videos.

When asked how he felt going back into the studio, McCarthy told ContactMusic he felt "exhilarated" before adding, "I went back to my former grade school actually and met with the music teacher I had. They gave me the keys to my old music room and let me have it for the day, so I sat in there with my grade school teacher and started writing. It was really weird being back there but I really enjoyed it."The singer/guitarist also revealed that the band wrote some of the album in the midst of snow storms; "We took ourselves away to a remote part of Canada to write a lot of the tracks, and really isolated ourselves. We had like really bad snow storms while we were out there but we got a lot of it done!"

'Augustines' Album Cover

The self-titled album is the Brooklyn-based indie band's second release since their 2011 debut 'Rise Ye Sunkern Ships'. When asked whether there was any pressure to better their popular debut, McCarthy said, "We always feel pressure. As artists we're always trying to better our previous attempts, we were a bit overwhelmed with the feedback we got from the first album but, if anything, it just made us feel excited about getting this new material out there!" 

Augustines have also recently released the music video for new song 'Nothing To Lose But Your Head' and McCarthy highlighted the importance of videos in the ever changing industry. "People are always on the go nowadays too so they don't really have the time to read blurbs or reviews about a band they don't know, so we're always thinking of new ways to get ourselves out there and the videos are certainly a way of doing this."

'Augustines' will be released on the 3rd February via Votiv/Caroline International.

Read the full interview here