It’s been a big year for The Living End. State of Emergency, the band’s fourth studio album, was released in February and entered the ARIA chart at number one – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. *Chris Cheney *(guitar), *Scott Owen *(bass) and *Andy Strachan *(drums) have played to sellout crowds around the world, they’ve released their first live DVD and they’ve also ended up on the new *Guitar Hero *game.

It’s early in the morning in Australia when the phone rings but for Cheney, it’s lunchtime yesterday. They’re midway through another American tour and are due to play in California tonight. While The Living End are known for their continual touring and a work ethic that’s second to none, the band’s singer and guitarist is keen to wrap the tour up and get back home.

It’s been insane,” he says. “We started touring in may in Australia, we’ve done two Australian tours, New Zealand, Europe and two American tours. It doesn’t feel like we’ve really been at home at all and I can’t wait to get home for Christmas time.

While Cheney says he and his bandmates have adjusted well to the perennial jetlag, it’s clear that he has a few more things on his plate these days.

“It is a bit harder now – me and Scott have children and it’s been quite strange being away from them,” he says. “But you know, we really do appreciate the fact that the band has set itself up to be able to do this. We haven’t made it in America by any means but there’s a certain amount of success attached to any band that’s out there travelling around and has been doing it for a number of years. We understand that it won’t go on like that forever and at the same time there is that regret of missing out on a lot of things. But that’s the life that this band has known – we’ve just toured relentlessly. Maybe when I get older I’ll have regrets that I spend that much time away from home but I think we’re truly blessed to be doing what we’re doing.

Despite the band having sat on top o Australian music for a good decade now, Cheney appears genuinely thankful and it’s clear he’s never taken anything for granted. Though the band are role models for young bands just starting their innings, the lead singer asserts that the band is always learning from their peers.

“Sometimes you learn what not to do,” he jokes. “But to me that’s what being a musician is – to feed off people and borrow ideas and borrow off other bands. We’ve always been one of those bands that’s been pretty hungry. We’ve always been fairly confident but also very hungry and looked up to other bands and looked toward other bands to see how they did things … we’ve always tried to keep current and valid and on top of the game.

With the band so careful not to fall into the trap of complacency, there’s that question of the classic TLE sound. But despite having one of the most recognisable sounds in Australian music, Cheney says the band doesn’t have any trouble breaking away from its trademark formula.

“When we write an album we always have 50 or 60 songs,” he says. “Some of the songs are really quite different – there’ll be traditional, sometimes bluegrass songs, acoustic songs, jazz numbers – we really stretch ourselves and let it all pile out. More often than not, a lot of that stuff doesn’t end up on the album, so to me, there’s a whole other side to this band that people haven’t really heard yet.

“There is a trademark sound within that energetic side of the band but there’s heaps of stuff that we’ve covered on b-sides and stuff that doesn’t make albums,” he adds. “I am proud that when people hear us on the radio they recognise that it’s us. Every band struggles with that – defining your sound is everything really – and I’m proud that we’ve got a sound.”

With the band due to welcome 2007 with the *Side Track’d *festival on New Year’s Day, it’s a time to look back on the year gone by and look forward to the year ahead.

“It’s been an amazing year for us,” Cheney explains. “An amazing two years, I should say, because of the writing and recording of this album. And when it came out and went to number one there was this huge wave that we seemed to be riding. And it was incredible for us, as we’d really worked hard on it. And the touring, there have been ups and downs but for the most part it’s been a real blast and it’ll be quite strange to put this album to bed.”

And what does 2007 have in store for The Living End? “I don’t know at this stage,” Cheney replies. “We have to see what happens internationally – the album’s just sinking in over here and in Europe … we definitely want to have a break for a little bit and try to get a new album together and all that. But I dare say, there’ll be something in the pipeline soon.”

And with album number five already on the cards, the Cheney is excited about where things can go from here. Despite this year marking the 10th anniversary of the Prisoner of Society/_Second Solution _double A-side that broke them into the mainstream, the frontman is by no means about to rest on his laurels and his bandmates are no different.

“I don’t feel like we’ve been around that long,” he says. “To me, album number four isn’t early days but it’s certainly further towards the beginning than the end. We’ve noticed on this album that there’s a whole generation of kids out there that _State of Emergency _is their first Living End album and that’s really exciting for us. We’re still noticing that a lot of the people that got into the first album are still coming to the shows and still support this band. I think once you get into this band, people tend to stick with it because I think we maintain a level of consistency with our live shows and to me, we had so much success on the first album that people think we’ve been around a long time.”

As well as State of Emergency, the band also kept fans happy with their _Live at Festival Hall _DVD, a release that captured their triumphant homecoming. But while the trio relish playing on larger stages at festivals and arena shows, they’re keen to give it 100 per cent regardless of how many people they’re playing to.

“We’ve had some terrible shows in really small, intimate environments and then we’ve had some of the greatest shows ever,” he says. “That’s where the band came from and that’s where we seem to thrive – small, packed sweaty clubs. When we started doing the *Big Day Out *we noticed we could actually cover the stage pretty well and put out a really good sound – there was never a drawback and it was never really something that didn’t translate. The other two guys prefer the smaller stage, but if you’re playing in front of 20,000 people and they’re all singing along and really going for it, that’s really incredible.”

With so many things to juggle, Cheney has places to go and people to see. But there’s time for one last topic. Carry Me Home, from 2000 album _Roll On _wound up on Guitar Hero 2, something that’s sure to take the band to countless pairs of ears around the world. But has Cheney played it?

“I haven’t yet,” he says. “There’s an ad on here in the states and it’s on all the time – they’re advertising it every bloody 10 minutes. It’s quite wild, I must get a copy and have a listen to it. It’s in the furious fretwork section I believe.”

But would he be any good? “I’d be terrible at it!” he adds. “It doesn’t involve a real guitar.”