LAST May, The Pigeon Detectives’ debut album went to number three in the UK charts and earned the guys a Q nomination for Best New Act. Since then, the Leeds quintet have been busy touring the world, scribbling their next offering and giving Avril Lavigne a Yorkshire makeover. Now back home, Pigeons guitarist Ryan Wilson took time out from washing his tour clothes ahead of a series of UK dates to talk to fresh.

USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, Austria – are you chuffed to be back home?

We’ve actually left a couple of the guys behind in Europe but I am definitely glad to be back in Leeds. It’s been a long couple of months. We’ve known each other since we were kids, so when we are on tour it’s almost like we’re brothers – arguing and disagreeing loads then completely forgetting about it minutes later. I don’t miss getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning to catch a flight or trawling around foreign countries not knowing what’s going on, but most of the time we just have a laugh.

Do you ever forget which country you are in?

Yeh, like we were going out to Austria but had to fly to Munich then drive an hour to get there. We got pulled in at the airport and asked where we were going. We were telling them Austria but they were looking at our tickets then looking at us really funny, saying ‘no you’re not’. They thought we were thick but we were just muddled up!

Not too muddled obviously as you’ve managed to get your new album written and ready for release in under a year ...

We had the tracks so we went into the studio at the back of last year and thought ‘let’s get it out’. I mean The Beatles released an album every six months. They were the biggest band in the world and the quality of their songs were amazing, they didn’t get worse over time. If we’d written 10 or 15 songs that were rubbish then we wouldn’t have put an album out so quickly, but we think we’ve written some really good songs.

Did the fact you recorded it in a Welsh hideaway help?

It was at a studio called Monnow Valley where Oasis, Stereophonics, Black Sabbath and other top bands have recorded. It’s almost like a farm and being in the middle of nowhere suited us as we didn’t want any distractions. Saying that, we had quad bikes and we did a spot of fishing. I nearly broke my neck [on the quads, not fishing] but I was being a bit stupid, to be fair.

The new album is called Emergency – what’s the panic?

It was actually my idea to name it that. We were in Wales and I said what about Emergency? It has quite a good ring to it and sounds energetic which sums up the last year for us – frantic bolting around everywhere. Everyone agreed and within two minutes it was decided. We don’t beat around the bush us.

Talking of names, we’ve heard you make up lies about why you called yourselves The Pigeon Detectives. Can we have the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth please?

You’re right, we did tell a few random stories but that’s only cos the truth isn’t that exciting really. But this is the truth: we were at the Leeds festival about four years ago and met this Australian bloke who was over travelling. We let him camp with us and for whatever reason, Matt [Bowman – lead singer] was yapping on about pigeons. This guy kept calling him a Pigeon Detective because he knew so much and we were looking for a band name so for a joke Matt said ‘why not’? We were going to change it but we got so far down the line, it would have confused people. But a lot of band names don’t make sense – I mean what is an Arctic Monkey or Razorlight?

True, but if you could change it, what would you go for?

To be fair, we actually quite like it. We’re not really that arty so if it wasn’t called that, it would probably be something totally bog standard like The Walls.

Has it caused any embarrassing moments?

I had a package delivered marked The Pigeon Detectives and the postman looked at me weirdly. I think he thought it was some sort of odd enterprise. I just thought, ‘you listen to radio one day and you’ll understand.’

You are good pals with the Kaiser Chiefs – do you all hang out together?

They come from north Leeds which is the posh bit and we are from the south, where the accent is a bit stronger, but we are all still great mates. Matt had a day off last Saturday and went with Nick from Kaiser Chiefs to see the Leeds United match. They ended up in the dressing room before the game just chatting to the lads. Apparently Nick gave them a good team talk.

You covered Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend for Radio One’s Live Lounge – what attracted you to the artist formerly known as skater girl?

We actually chose a Justin Timberlake song to do first, but it had already been done by somebody else. We didn’t really know which song to do instead, so Radio One gave us a list to pick from and Girlfriend was one of them. It had just come out recently and if you listen to it, musically it is quite rocky with electric guitar and stuff so we thought we can do this one quite well. It worked alright to be fair.

Has Avril been on the blower to compliment your efforts?

No she hasn’t, we’ve not heard anything. Bit annoying really. We are good friends with The Holloways and they did a cover of a Black Eyed Peas song. Fergie sent them a message saying I really like your version but Avril Lavigne couldn’t even do that for us.

So would you snub her if she called asking to do a duet?

I’d like to meet up with her, have a chat and a sing, but I think the management wouldn’t deem it a very cool or rock’n’roll thing to do.

The Pigeon Detectives’ new single This is an Emergency is out on
May 12. The album Emergency is out on May 26