Talking Shop: The Feeling

Pop band The Feeling shot to prominence in 2006 on the back on their first album Twelve Stops and Home, which sold 600,000 copies and spawned a clutch of hit singles.

The Feeling's new album was mixed in Los Angeles

With such soft rock-inspired tunes as Never Be Lonely and Sewn, the West Sussex fivesome became radio darlings and a popular fixture on the gig and festival circuit.

While their debut was recorded in a garden shed, new offering Join With Us was made in a stately home.

Lead singer and guitarist Dan Gillespie Sells discusses how they tackled the new album and worked with some of pop's most famous writers.

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The new album is more ambitious with a full orchestra in some parts. How did this come about?

It's just a natural course of events. We felt more confident with the instrumentation to get more elaborate. With the more epic moments we had the opportunity this time to use instruments I'd always envisaged in my head. Last time I used backing vocals, but this time I could do it for real. I felt much more liberated with this record.

Does this mean you've moved away from the successful formula of your first album?

Not really. We knew what made that work - it was the songwriting and making sure the emotion was there and not destroyed. With this record it's the same. If you get carried away with the production and lose the song, you've made a mistake and gone a step too far.

Making music to sell records is not the right way of going about it The Feeling's Dan Gillespie Sells

The recording venue for the new album was a far cry from the outhouse you used for the first.

It had a tin roof and that's rotting away. But we wanted to work in the same fun way with just the five of us in the country without any distractions. We knew this time people from the record label would be coming down, which adds to the stress and making conservative decisions with the music.

We didn't plan to record in a mansion house, but it was practical. Bradley House has more than five bedrooms with a big space for our gear. And it was cheaper than a recording studio.

We used a large, wood-panelled dining room with high ceilings and a library next door which is where the recording equipment was. It was really nice. We engineered it all ourselves, there was no one else around and we could forget about the world.

Did you have a ghostly sighting when you were there?

We kept having these weird orbs with electrical tentacles, but I think it was just caused by a bit of dust on a camera. It's more fun to say it's a ghost.

Are you pleased with the finished product?

Yeah, we're really happy with it. We would have gone into a proper studio and got a producer on the gig had we not been happy. We tried to make it a natural development from the last album - we did what we felt was right for the songs and acted instinctively.

Is there a pressure to emulate the success generated by your first album?

Bradley House in Wiltshire was The Feeling's recording base

There is with everyone around us, particularly our label and management, but they've got to worry about making their money. We try not to think about it like that - we're artistically ambitious, but as long as we sell enough records to continue we'll be happy.

Thinking about sales figures and chart positions isn't healthy; you get tense and are not as expressive. We made the record we made and it's a decision we can live and die by. Trying to second guess the public mood and making music to sell records is not the right way of going about it.

Have you been working with famous hit-makers Guy Chambers and Cathy Dennis?

I haven't worked with Guy but I have written with Cathy. She said she'd listened to the first album a lot and wanted to work with me. I worked on a song with her a month ago with a song for Sophie [Ellis Bextor]. Cathy is a real talent and has a great understanding of pop.

Guy Chambers has been in touch and I've had dinner with him, but we haven't sat down and written anything. But that would be nice as well.

What's your favourite part of the music-making process?

I love performing and enjoy it the more confident I get. But I love being creative in the studio, which I really miss when on tour.

Join With Us by The Feeling is released in the UK on 18 February. Dan Gillespie Sells was talking to BBC News entertainment reporter Michael Osborn.