Andy Falkous of Future of the Left begins our interview by asking me the questions first. “What time is it there in Australia?” he enquires in a casual Welsh accent. “I remember dong a bunch of interviews first thing in the morning in Australia. I can’t say I was at my best.”

Falkous, a man known equally for both his music and his unique personality, is a master of rapport. The necessary discussion of the band’s recent album Travels With Myself and Another feels like a break in conversation rather than the focus.

“Looking at the two records, Curses is a little bit more angular, and has a little bit more strength to it – if that’s appropriate to say about a record that’s thirty minutes long,” he muses. “And Travels is a bit more honed, a bit more full-on and – for me at least, a little bit more fully realised.”

Falkous clarifies that despite the reactions of critics and the public, he never sets out to make one record different from another. “To us, we try to put ourselves in the right position, in the right frame of mind. So when the ideas come along, we’re physically in order to take advantage of those springs of inspiration. It then becomes a case of waiting for those springs to happen.”

“It’s a question of patience; it’s a question of understanding the process. The way we rehearse is that we just put our hands on our instruments and we start. If it doesn’t work, we stop.

“Sometimes you’re not aware of the hard work you’re doing, of the process you have in place and the things you’re refining when things are going badly. It’s all equally part of the process as a great song that is going to hold up the record for you.”

“It’s interesting,” Falkous continues, now completely carrying the conversation and building his own analogies. “I was watching this interview with an ice hockey player on Canadian TV once. And although I have no interest in it and couldn’t answer anything about the sport, they asked this guy, – œWhat was your biggest regret in your entire career?’ And he said that the biggest regret was that people only ever saw the goals and the glory and they never saw the tragedy. They never saw all the hard work, all the chipping away and the practise that he put in all his life. And the interviewer just went, – œYeah’, and then cut to a montage of all his goals.”

Oddly enough, part of Andy’s personal struggle during his teenage years was defining his own personal love for music. He blames his parents, both musicians, for his unfortunate genetic disposition. “I mean,” he explains, “who the hell wants to do what their parents do? My parents were musicians, so I wanted to be a sportsman, of course. I guess that’s how most kids work. Then again, I didn’t really write a good, valid note until I was 26. Everything before that was pure shit.”

Such a comment begs the question: what does Andy make of the ease with which music can now be released into the world, regardless of its quality?

“In a sense, just because the technology’s there to allow you to do something, in doesn’t mean you have to specifically use it,” he muses. “The technology should be an aid to help you send your music around the world, sure.

“But unfortunately the ease of it means that, as you said, there is very little quality control. But don’t get me wrong: record companies show quite evidently that they have little concept of quality control through the well-produced shit that you hear. It’s fascinating, because you can show the world what is very much the musical equivalent of a sketch. But the danger comes when that becomes the standard.”

Andy deviates to the activities of free music advocates Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke. “I think if someone wants to give their music away for free, that’s a fantastic thing. It’s just, certainly in terms of being a full-time touring band you can’t exist in that same kind of atmosphere. And you notice that most of the people who believe that music should be free make music that is so bad, the only way it’s really bearable is if you got it for free…Or, in fact, if they paid you a small fee!”

And what about those who say that musicians should start making money via alternative avenues? “This is a personal opinion, but somebody said to me the other day, – œWell, y’know, you should be able to, in turn, make your money through merchandise.’

“Now,” his tone becomes markedly aggressive, “I did not spend, altogether, 18 years making music so I could become a glorified t-shirt salesman, where my album and my live show is simply an advert for a faded t-shirt on someone’s back. That’s my take on it. The album, for me, is a work of art. It isn’t an advert for the – œlive experience’ or some drink coolers. A lot of my body, of my soul, has gone into that, even if it is only 33 minutes of music.”

I ask him how, in light of all this, he feels about his live shows, including the upcoming Falls Festival. “Well, at the end of the day, we’re a rock and roll band. We’re not exactly in one of the oldest musical traditions in the world, only really from the 1950s onwards. But, to go onstage with anything less than real artistic intent, especially if it’s just commercial considerations, would automatically kill it. But if you’re doing things right, then it’s just a case of whether or not you bring the rock and roll.”

And while he notes if he were offered money for his music’s commercial use he wouldn’t be in the position to say no, he still questions why we live in a world where everything is second-guessed for commercial considerations.

“It’s very saddening that musicians – some the most pragmatic of artists – become so aware of commercial considerations for themselves and others. For me, personally, a near-poverty wage with the occasional free drinks: it’s enough to stop me from getting a real job for life. That’s about the list of my demands.”

Travels With Myself and Another is out now on 4AD/Remote Control Records. Future Of The Left plays these shows here in summer.

Tues 29 to Thurs 31 December – Falls Festival
Sunday 3 January – The Zoo, Brisbane
Thursday 7 January – The Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Friday 8 January – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Saturday 9 January – Southbound Festival, Perth