Mercury Rev are currently embarked on a major tour of their Deserter's Songs LP (check the Quietus later today for a major feature), but their eyes are set firmly on the future, with initial ideas for their next studio album. "We've been writing a lot over this past year," Jonathan Donahue said. "Right now we're in the Deserter's Songs headspace, but there's a lot of new material. Once the summer stuff has done its course we'll be jumping into the studio again to finish what we've been writing over the past year."

And how is the new material shaping up compared to 2008's Snowflake Midnight / Strange Attractor double whammy? "I find it to be really different, but how many times has an artist told you that?" says Donahue. "Then you get the record and you're like really? But I find it to be vital and fresh. I've never been one to sit down and say I want to sound like the old record. So the stuff I've been sat down and writing recently is fresh, for me. It's surprising that it's come out of me. Hopefully people like you and others will hear it some point soon and feel the same way.

"Sometimes you look back in retrospect you look back and think it sounds like other records you have done, but when it comes out it's the most vital life force, like a child being born. And yeah, your baby pretty much looks like every other baby in the infant department, but for you, it's the most unique experience you can imagine. And for my own respect, coming from my own lyrics, that's what it's like. Maybe they grow up to just be another soccer-loving hooligan, but you don't know."