You’ve been touring a lot. How’s life on the road?
Had a couple of rough patches to be honest. Heavy travel has been quite draining. Got really sick at one point this year, and I think everyone has been pretty ill. But it’s getting pretty easy now. We’re sort of over our rough traveling part, so it’s all smooth sailing from here.

Are you excited about coming to Bangkok?
Excited and confused. It’s quite overwhelming going to a country that you are basically completely ignorant of – you just have to kind of sit there on Wikipedia all the time- like figuring out what it’s all about. It’s pretty amazing. It’s a privileged lifestyle to be honest.

It’s the first time to SEA for you, but not for your front woman?
Yeah it’s my first time. And this whole year of touring has been my first time out of NZ so it’s kind of mind blowing.

Best part of your rise to success in this past year?
Becoming a successful band outside of NZ is like a massive, whopping achievement. I never really expected to be doing what I’m doing, on the scale that I am, so the whole thing is quite amazing and thrilling. Very, very satisfying feeling to be living and working as an artist. It’s kind of living the dream.

How was Glastonbury?
It was cool, but it was the same sort of thing as every other festival to be honest. It’s just much more massive – such a grand scale. There are many stages – I can’t even remember how many stages there are. Got to venture around and get covered in mud. It was good fun.

You’ve been compared to Arcade Fire and MGMT … how would you describe your sound?
It feels pretty flattering to be a part of that music culture that is essentially the stuff that is inspiring for us. And Arcade Fire was an alternative band that became a pop band –that’s a place where I would love to end up. I’ve always just thought we were a rock band in the most generic sense. A lot of rock bands end up having different names and falling under different genres. I don’t know… it’s alternative music, and we are a rock band in my head. I never wanted to start an electro-pop band or anything like that.

What was the first album you ever bought when you were a kid?
I didn’t buy it. I got given it. It was Tool – Aenima. I was about 9 or 10 years old.

Do you have a music idol or someone that first inspired you to get into the business?
It was never really a business decision for me, especially coming from a place like NZ, where you can’t essentially make a living from music even if you are a very popular artist. It’s very hard to make any substantial career year to year. Because you can do it for one year, then it comes to an end.
For me I just always wanted to be writing music and to be a writer. And it was based on growing up and listening to music. I was a music kid. I was a rock kid. Played guitar. There were a whole bunch of bands that were a big influence on me. I’ve just always been a big alternative music fan.
When I first heard Massive Attack it sort of opened a whole bunch of doors for me. Nine Inch Nails- that’s a really big one. And heavy rock bands like Tool and A Perfect Circle. That kind of alternative hard rock –it was a lot of what I grew up on. Alternative music in general is inspiring.
One of my favorite artists now would have to be Bon Iver. I thrashed that album – the latest one. I listened to it all year.

So what’s up next for you guys? Are you working on anything new?
Yeah, I’ve been getting us ready to start rehearsing album two stuff. And I’ve been writing bits and pieces and sort of finishing off old demos of the years gone by. We’ve done a couple of remixes as well. So I always hope to have been able to do more but the reality of touring is that it’s just very hard to find inspiration because you are so tired all the time and just basically trying to look for food. There’s a lot of material to start with for album two, and at demo time, which is before the American tour, we are basically just going to hang out and demo and rehearse and muck about with music. Start from scratch.

Do you have any interest in playing more festivals?
We did a lot of festivals this year. There is a festival season in UK and all throughout Europe. Things like Wireless Festival and Dot To Dot. Hundreds of festivals. So we were just touring and doing our own shows, but every second day we were at a different festival . That sort of experience is a different style of touring to doing our own shows. Festival shows are so much more concise. And quite a challenge, to be honest. To get all the production right and play the right set at the right time. I think the next album we will definitely go back to the festival circuit again. Alternative music culture seems to thrive on the live music scene and even more so now on the festivals. It’s such a huge part of what the industry is about now. And it’s kind of the bread and butter for a lot of artists now. Doing a festival circuit is where a lot of the bills get paid and the commerce side of being an artist. So it’s pretty important for everyone involved.

Do you have a favorite track that you like to play in the live shows?
It’s different, it changes all the time. It’s like picking your favorite child: It’s kind of wrong.
It’s infinitely flattering and gratifying performing ‘Young Blood’ because of what the song has done for us and how it has connected people. For me, I find it strange when you see a band who has a hit and they get pissed off playing it live because that’s the one the audience responds to and that’s the one that got you where you are. That always strikes me as a little bit juvenile when bands get pissed off at that. Cause they do. Like Nirvana getting frustrated at playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ A lot of bands get really pissed off playing their big hit. And they kind of resent it and end up disliking it, but I don’t feel like that at all about ‘Young Blood.’ It’s pretty amazing being able to play that song.

Do you listen to Thai music at all…do you know of any groups?
No, to be honest I have to just plead ignorance here and say that I was raised in a very isolated part of the world. New Zealand is not like any other country in that it is completely disconnected from outside influences and its almost quite a narcissistic country – no, it’s a wonderful place to grow up in; you can dream big in New Zealand. It’s just so culturally isolated that you don’t hear stuff. It’s really hard to hear other music, to get films, to actually know someone who is bilingual. We only speak English.

With all your research that you’ve been doing on Bangkok, is there anything that you want see or are particularly excited to do while you’re here?
I’m not actually sure what our schedule is, to be honest. When we get there, I’ll start thinking about it.