Editors: Hold The Front Page!

It's been a remarkable year for the Birmingham-based four-piece Editors. Having signed to independent label Kitchenware at the end of 2004, their first single, 'Bullets', sold out within two days in January and raised the band's hopes of becoming a musical force to be reckoned with. Two more singles followed, 'Munich' in April and 'Blood' in July, and with both hitting the Top 20, the brooding post-punk foursome effortlessly claimed their place amongst Britain's promising new pop favourites. Gigwise caught up with Editors' tireless front man, lyricist and guitarist, Tom Smith, to talk about self-belief, ambiguities and contradictions.

"We’re better now than we’ve ever been, but we’re also very proud of the way it’s built over the course of this year," says the 24-year old. Being keen on seeing their reputation evolve, rather than crash and burn, Editors carefully calculated their next moves. They busied themselves with shows, including a UK headline tour, and their debut album, 'The Back Room', which shot to No 13 in the charts in the week of its release at end of July. September saw their first US appearance in Nashville, Tennessee, playing alongside Maximo Park and The Features, and the re-release of their break-out single, 'Bullets', with, Tom comments, "a bit more life injected into it."

When asked what he thinks about Editors' enviable success, Tom says, "Everything that's happened to us has been a surprise. We've always had self-belief and confidence, but arrogance has never been a part of what we’re about."

Editors are made up of Tom Smith, Chris Urbanowicz (guitar), Russell Leetch (bass, guitar) and Ed Lay (drums), and were once called Snowfield. Tom assures us that they never liked that name, that they had a number of terrible names. But once they'd secured a record deal, they wanted something they liked, and also something that didn't give too much away. "'Editors' just felt right," says Tom. "It’s no witty comment on any kind of journalism."

That's not the only elusive side of the band. Tom's lyrics, touching on loss, death, love or life, are equally ambiguous. "People should make their own interpretations," Tom explains. "That's a fundamental aspect of enjoying music. The situations described in the songs come from both my experiences and observing other peoples'. But I'm not telling stories. There’s no overriding message. The words are used to conjure up imagery, and are an attempt to touch and connect with people."

You get a good sense of his cryptic sentiments in 'Camera', for the singer the most important song on the album: "Look at us through the lens of a camera / Does it remove all of our pain? / If we run they'll look in the back room / Where we hide all of our feelings". Tom comments, "A photo can make any previous situation look sweeter. Everyone has a place they hide things they don't want people to see."

He says 'Camera' felt very important, and that musically the song stands out from their other songs. "Before we went into the studio we'd never recorded a song like it. I don't think if people had just heard 'Bullets' and 'Munich' they'd expect to hear a song like 'Camera'. I think we set ourselves a new bench mark. That’s why it’s the centre piece, and the album title comes from it."