Text by John Norris @jonnynono

Go directly to the video

"Don't Wait" is one of the more memorable tracks from The Duke Spirit's Bruiser--and a song whose video you'll see this week on Face Time. And yet waiting more than they would have liked is exactly what the UK band and its fans had to do for album number three. As the band explains in a conversation shot at New York's Thompson LES Hotel, a confluence of factors, extended touring, a slight lineup change (the departure of guitarist Dan Higgins), the search for the right producer, label schedules and yes, finances resulted in a three and a half year gap between 2008's Neptune and the new release.

Just maybe though, extra time to consider where they were headed next resulted in an intriguing new sonic shift for The Duke Spirit. As Liela Moss tells us, it wasn't so much that they wanted to clean up their sound for Bruiser as they wanted to streamline it, create musical "space to breathe", allowing, in the words of drummer Olly Betts, "the instrumentation to count a bit more".  We also talk the band's association with its new producer Andrew Scheps, working on their second consecutive album in Southern California which the band contrasts with its typically grey and gloomy Blighty homeland. Guitarist Luke Ford even recalls shooting the band's "Northbound" video in the run down UK seaside town of Jaywick. "We were fearful of getting out of that place alive".

Fortunately they did, and they are back in fighting spirit with Bruiser (complete with ram's head on the cover) a title which Moss explains reflects some of "the brutality of being in a band" and having to "push to make things happen". A lesson most of us have to learn at one time or another. It's music and conversation on Face Time with a British band who's just as loved on these shores -- The Duke Spirit.