YOUNG Guns are excited. Not only is the band about to embark on a headline tour, but the rockers are also set to release their second album, Bones, which was written in a shed in Little Marlow.

Victoria MacFarlaine reports.

YOUNG Guns’ eagerly-anticipated new second album wasn’t penned in a state-of-the-art studio with various music legends on tap for advice, as you would think. No, it was written in a shed in Little Marlow.

Bones, which is set to be released on February 6, has already had rave reviews, to the delight of drummer Ben Jolliffe.

The aforementioned shed belongs to Jolliffe’s parents at their family home in Little Marlow.

Speaking to Freetime about their unusual choice of creative venue, he said: “My dad has got a covers band (called Trampoline) and has a studio in the garden. We just practised there every day and we just wrote the album in the shed at the top of the garden, which is quite weird.

‘We were writing there every day for a month and a half and then going off to Thailand to record it. It was a bit of a contrast!

“It was great fun. Luckily we had my parents’ place so it was really handy for us being able to record there.

“My family are very musically orientated, so when I was about five my dad bought me my first drum kit and it was in the shed so we have had it like our whole lives.“

The drummer, 26, was working in his family’s dress hire shop, Jolliffes in Marlow, ironing shirts, before he was called to the stage.

The band has since gone on to great things, including playing the main stages at Reading and Leeds Festival, supporting rock giants Bon Jovi and making it to number 43 in the charts with their first album, All Our Kings Are Dead.

Next on the list is a headline tour to take in the band’s old stamping ground, Bucks New University on February 2, as well as other parts of the UK.

The last time Ben spoke to the Free Press was in 2010, when he said it was “only now we are starting to be able to afford lunch”.

So how are the finances in 2012?

“Wealthy is definitely not the word”, says Jolliffe. “We get by fine. I think fans and people think we have got loads of money, but we have always been a DIY band, the money we earn we put straight back into the band. It was not long until after Reading Festival that we started being on a bit more of a wage.

“We live okay, we cannot buy flash cars or anything yet. But fingers crossed, after the next album we might be able to move out and get a flat somewhere.

It is a very slow process and you struggle for quite a while then gradually something great happens and then you can obviously get a lot more money. We are comfortable at the moment.”

The band came together at The White Horse pub in West Wycombe Road, High Wycombe, when the members used to play shows there.

Bassist Simon Mitchell, brothers Fraser and John Taylor, who are guitarists, and Jolliffe had all been in separate groups, but eventually came together.

They were later introduced to singer Gustav Wood.

Despite their runaway success, Jolliffe says it is a nerve-wracking experience releasing a new album.

“When you write an album you go through different emotions, like it is all you listen to for the first couple of weeks”, he said.

“You get really excited then the nerves start kicking in and you almost start doubting yourself. But now that a lot of press and reviews are back we are thinking a lot more positively.

“They (the reviews) have all been great so far. All the feedback from family and all that have really helped us a lot. It is one of the those things that nearer the time it comes to release, the more nervous you are and thinking, is it any good? No matter what band you are, you always doubt yourself. Bones the video has just come out and it has gone down really well.”

Any festivals lined up for this year?

“Well hopefully yes, nothing is set in stone yet, but we are definitely doing some of the big ones, like Reading and Leeds.

“We have done Download for the last three years.

“Wycombe is our home town so it is especially nice to start the tour off there as well. It is really exciting so hopefully we will get some good friends down.”

See www.weareyoungguns.com

Questions with Ben Jolliffe from Young Guns:

What is your motivation behind the sound on your new album? It is quite a tough one. We just sat in the studio and tried to write the best songs we could. We’d say ‘let’s write a heavy one’ but then we’d end up writing the lightest one. I just think we are much better song writers. The first album, as much as I love it, it still feels like we were trying to find our sound. It had a bit too much texture, maybe for our first album. I definitely feel the direction with this album is the one we wanted to go in. I am really happy with how it has come out and how it has been perceived, song writing stuff and all that.

Where does the name Young Guns come from? It was from our old guitarist, just before I was in the band. They were talking about having band names and he suggested Young Guns and they were like ‘that’s rubbish’. Later on that night, I think with beers, they were like ‘it’s a great idea let’s call it Young Guns’.

John and I joined the band again and to be honest, we don’t really like the name (laughs) it is one of those things. I mean, at the time we were a little more rock, I would say. But at the end of the day it is just a name but we have always thought about changing our name, but we never got round to it. Gradually it became too late because you have to start all over again.

Any crazy fan moments? We have some amazing fans, but crazy in the sense they travel so far to see us. We have got some fans in Japan that will go to see us play a show in Glasgow, and fans that will travel all round Europe and some of them will follow us in a car behind our tour bus to each venue. And the tour bus travels all through the night so it means they have to keep awake all night. We get loads of gifts, and cakes, and really cool presents like big collages where our fans have written things.

Any famous friends? Most of the bands we have toured with we have become close with. Even bands like Lost Prophets, that we grew up loving, and then actually becoming close friends with them is quite a weird experience. We are family friends with the guys from ACDC so we get to see them a lot and we used to go to shows and get drunk with them, so that was always quite exciting. It is such a small industry that all the bands know each other and at any award ceremony, pretty much everyone are friends.

You supported Bon Jovi so do you still keep in touch with them? We got a smile from most of them as we walked past and that was about it! When they are at such a big level they often don’t even need support bands.

We imagined you all having a beer together? No, not with them. Jon Bon Jovi barely even looked at us. But I didn’t expect anything more. You always think when bands play with other bands they will all be friends but often that isn’t the case.

Often when you play with big, big bands you won’t even see them.

Is it weird to see yourself on TV or on a magazine for the first time? It is weird when you are listing to the radio and you come on or you are watching TV and you come up, it’s like ‘oh cool, we are a real band!’ It is like when you get a good review or you have done a good tour you think, ‘really - us?’ I guess that is a good way to be. So we are always really surprised, we are like ‘wow’ it is a really good feeling. We have grown up wanting that. My mum picks up all the magazines [featuring Young Guns] in the shops, so you have to get there quick! Seeing us on front pages is one of the coolest things. We grew up seeing rock stars on there, like millionaires, then you see us on there and it’s like, that’s not quite the case!

First album? I listened to a lot of pop punk as a kid. It was probably a Green Day record or it could have even been an ACDC record.

Most rock n’ roll thing you have done? Simon got naked under the Eiffel tower and had a run around and he had to hide from the military. I think John stole half his clothes, or all his clothes, and then we tried to look for him. We couldn’t find him and we saw him on the ground. We wondered what he was doing there and then we saw the military with machine guns. It was one of those things that was either really funny or really scary.

How was playing Reading Festival? It was unbelievable. It was just the best feeling. That could be one of our best [gigs]. We were nervous, and nerves don’t help. I didn’t really think about it too much and when I got on the stage and looked up and saw this sea of people I thought ‘oh God, I’m so nervous’. As soon as you start playing, you are fine, but it is just one of those things that you don’t really realise how many people are there. You look at a video or a photo and see the crowd and you just think ‘Oh my God’. We spent the whole day on a bit of a cloud, walking around.

What’s next? We have got the rest of the year booked up. We were supposed to have gone to Japan last year and we never went, and Japan has always been a massive goal for us, and the States. To go over to those two places would be incredible. And to just keep doing this for as long as we can. We are having a great time and obviously we just want to keep touring and touring and touring. Just keep doing it.