A New Zealand band who've been around for quite a few years & who've succeeded in their home country, Garageland are set to return to the scene with a pretty cool new ep called The Not Empty EP & a new album due shortly called Do What You Want.

The band have always been loved for their fabulous guitar pop, catchy sing-a-long choruses & basically for just being cool. After a couple of years overseas, they've return home to New Zealand where they're about to embark on a tour to support the new album once it's properly finished. I recently had the chance to ask Jeremy Eade, one of the band's vocalists & guitar players.

One of the most obvious questions was how it felt to return to their home country after a couple of years away.

"It's good, it really is. I'm relaxing at home here in Dunedin & there is just a different feeling here than when we were in the UK. It's a little hard to explain, but I suppose the difference in the amount of people & the slower pace of living here has to make a difference."

Another fairly obvious question was how they'd coped with the fickle music media in the UK.

"We were pretty lucky as far as the media goes over there. The New Music Express liked our stuff & we were lucky enough to get some airplay as well. A lot of bands aren't so fortunate, but at least we didn't get any negative publicity."

Having spent the last couple of years based in London, I asked Jeremy how the music scene compared to New Zealand or even Australia.

"There definitely is a difference over there. I suppose with so many people there is going to be some differences, but for us to go from New Zealand, where things only really happen on a Friday or Saturday night, or maybe even Sunday if you're lucky, to London, where there's just a very dense club culture & something's happening every night of the week, in every club. That's probably the biggest thing we had to get used to."

I mentioned that my favourite song & probably the best thing the band have done, was Falling Like A Star, which is off the new ep.

"Really? I like that one a lot too, but wait until you hear the album, because there's a lot better music on the album, which should be out in a couple of months from now. We had a great time recording it & we're proud of the way it sounds."

The title track of the song Not Empty intrigued me because of it's catchiness, which has long been a trademark of the band's music.

"I guess we've always been into just catching a mood of a song & we're lucky that a lot of people think along the same way we do & that's why they come to our gigs & listen to our records. I hope we can do it for a while yet before people get sick of us."

One of the most unusual tracks for the band on the new ep, is the cover of The Pixies' Allison & I asked Jeremy about it.

"We wanted to try & do something a bit different with that song & I guess it was a conscious decision to slow the song down & strip it back, because it worked well like that. We think it's a great version of a great song, because it's so different. A lot of covers of songs from The Pixies are fairly traditional & at least this one's something unique for us."

Lastly, I had to ask about the band's new website, which is fairly new.

"We had some ideas ourselves & we just got into it. It's a good way to get information about the band out. We've seen some sites for bands that are basically just promotional pages put up by the record company. We wanted something that's a little bit more us. I like the interface, because it's a lot more friendly than a lot of other sites we've seen, it's not sterile, kind of organic I suppose you might say & I hope people like it. I hope they like the album more though."

Check out the band's new ep, The Not Empty EP, out now through Mushroom & look out for the new album soon. Garageland will be touring through August & September in Australia.