With the recent release of their single ‘Superlike’ and the announcement of their upcoming UK tour, The Academic will be bringing their brand of indie rock musings to the N4 stage at Community Festival. We caught up with them ahead of the festivities to talk new music, festival essentials and more.

NEN: How do you feel about playing Community alongside the likes of The Kooks and Blossoms?

We’ve played shows with The Kooks around North America and Europe and it’s always a pleasure to play with those guys who were a big influence on us when we were just starting out. Blossoms are a great band too with solid tunes so it’s obviously a privilege to play on the same bill as those guys!

NEN: How do you prep for festival season?

We don’t really prep, we just dive right in. Festival shows can be wild and unpredictable so best not to prepare really. Makes it more fun.

NEN:  What’s your one festival essential that you bring with you?

Sunglasses, you’ll thank yourself in the morning…

NEN: Have you got a favourite festival memory?

We opened for The Strokes at a festival in Hyde Park in London a few years back and it was an extra special show as they were a massive band for us growing up.

NEN: Do you prefer tours or festivals?

It’s hard to pick one over the other to be honest, but festivals are great because you get to see plenty of other bands play and you bump into friends that you haven’t seen in ages. You don’t necessarily get that on tours.

NEN: You’ve just announced a UK tour. What can we expect from it?

New music! This will be our first time back in the UK with music that isn’t our debut album. We’re excited to get back to the UK, we had such a great time last time out!

NEN: We’re loving your latest single ‘Superlike’, it’s slightly different to ‘Tales From The Backseat’. what was the writing process like?

Yeah we wanted to make sure going into studio that the approach to songwriting changed. Leaving behind the traditional indie rock approach we started using drum machines and synths as a foundation before looking at guitars. It was exciting and gave us a new lease of life in the studio.

NEN: What was the inspiration for the song?

I just remember hearing the phrase ‘Superlike’ on a bus one day and thought it was an interesting way of telling somebody how you feel. I didn’t know it was a dating site turn of phrase at the time.

NEN: Who would you say are your biggest influences musically?

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of influence from the 80’s. New order, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and The Human League.

NEN: Anything exciting planned for later this year? Apart from tours, any more music in the pipeline?

Yeah new music is our major focus right now. We’ve got a lot of songs that we are really excited to work on and release.