It’s been a while between drinks, but the Panics are finally back on Australian soil. After jetting off to Salford, England to write and then Woodstock, New York to record, they've returned home with an album that encapsulates the essence of their travels: Rain on the Humming Wire.

Marching out of the gates with lead single 'Majesty', Rain on the Humming Wire is an emotionally-charged record, laced with the sort of thoughtful pop-rock that we've come to expect from the lads who brought us the heartfelt anthem 'Don't Fight It' and 2007's critically-acclaimed album Cruel Guards.

We caught up with frontman and songwriter Jae Laffer recentl,y while he was rehearsing in preparation for a tour supporting Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart and Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks.

Jack Pilven: Hey Jae, where are you this morning?

Jae Laffer: I'm in Melbourne and have just been rehearsing every day at the moment for a tour we start next week. We're doing a thing with David Stewart of the Eurythmics. We're touring with him for a little while and just learning all his songs and it's been a lot of fun. He asked us to be his backing band and now we're touring around with Stevie Nicks for the next few weeks. So we're kind of session musicians and it's going to be a bit of a holiday for us, so it's going to be cool.

JP: It must be a real honour getting to support those guys. Did you grow up listening to a lot of the Eurythmics and Fleetwood Mac?

JL: Yeah, but it's also like... Dave, in particular, has become this great songwriter and producer and he works with so many of my heroes like Tom Petty and Mick Jagger and Bono. When we got asked to do the gig, for me, it was mostly out of being really intrigued about him and wanting to have a conversation with him and talk to him about songs and that kind of thing. I always get very intrigued by people who live in that world that is close to the world of my heroes, you know? He's someone that's really good friends with Bob Dylan and there's just so much that I want to ask him. But also for the boys, because it's been such a long slog while recording and touring, it's nice for us to go and play someone else's music and to just be tested on their instruments.

JP: Do you plan on reinterpreting Dave's music or will you stick fairly close to the originals?

JL: We'll see how we go. He's also got a solo album, so he's got some pretty stripped-back, rock 'n' roll stuff and then there are a few Eurythmics songs and some other songs, like the song he wrote for Tom Petty, 'Don't Come Around Here No More'. It's a good mix of stuff so it should be cool.

JP: Okay, getting back to your band now... album number four, Rain on the Humming Wire, was written in England and recorded in New York. Do you think these places affected the overall sound of the record?

JL: Yeah, I do but we get the luxury of... you know... we've made a bunch of records now and each one, for at least a period of time, we've managed to be able to work on while overseas - even if it was just to start the record or to write a record or to record. And each time we've done this I think it's had a great effect on the record, but it's one of those things that you get to leave to chance every time. It's part of the fun of choosing a place and different people to work with while in the studio. I find that when you write songs somewhere, that changes everything... it all comes down to the songs. A lot of the time we've got some pretty good material out of being over in Northern England because we always seem to go back there and set up camp and plays shows in England and do some writing, which has become a bit of a theme in terms of what we do. Those things in particular have a big effect. I can listen back to any of our songs and each one takes me back to a certain place and it's quite often that I can picture what street I was walking down when I was coming up with a lyric or that kind of thing, you know? And all of that has come from me and the boys being in different places.

JP: So have you ever contemplated moving abroad permanently?

JL: Yeah, we talk about it regularly and I think that it's getting to that point where we would very much like to do that- I know I certainly would. But we just try to keep everyone happy and it's always been more of a money thing where you need to keep busy and keep tours going and that kind of thing. But yeah, life is short and there are so many places that I want to see and so many places that I would like to live... to keep a band together and to be able to go different places in the world, even if it's just to write some songs or to do some shows, it's such a privilege and I want to get as much of that in my life as I possibly can. I look forward to seeing where we end up and making sure all our choices and goals remain extremely ambitious. I think to go along with that would definitely involve spending more time over in England. We also love America now, after working there I think we would all love to be spending a lot more time there, but we will see what happens.

JP: On the topic of the US, I've read that you recorded Rain on the Humming Wire out in the wilderness of Woodstock...

JL: Yeah, that's right. We recorded the record out in Woodstock and then we took the tapes down to Manhattan in the city and we mixed it there, so we kind of got the best of both worlds. We were in an incredible studio. It was this old wooden, white church on a hill, in a town just outside of Woodstock that was very isolated. We found ourselves in this little place, just us and the producer and his assistant. It was just a bunch of fellas out in the woods, without a car, and we had a month where we would basically just setup and play at whatever time of night we wanted and the producer was cool with that. It was more like just being on camp in the woods. We couldn't even really get out, so if someone didn't feel like doing anything then we would just light a fire and drink underneath the trees. It was really cool like that. But in terms of just getting the hell out of somewhere and focusing... we had little bits and pieces of songs that were written all over the place, but we hadn't pulled it together into any kind of record until we arrived at this place where we were on our own and we could put it all together and make an album.

JP: Did you get up to any Bear Grylls type shenanigans while out in the wild?

JL: What's Bear Grylls?

JP: You know the guy from Man v Wild? Have you not seen the tv show?

JL: (laughs) Oh yeah, I have seen a little bit of that. It's funny because at night time you have to lock up all your rubbish because there are bears out in the woods that come in and eat all the food at night. I'd like to sound braver, but that scared the shit out of me! And we had to walk to our living quarters, which was down the hill and we had to do it by torchlight every night, and you'd just feel like a hand was going to come out from behind a tree and just scoop you in and eat you. But it all added to the experience because we would wake up and it was the fall, so we were surrounded by beautiful red forest and woodpeckers and squirrels and that kind of thing. I love the way people making rock 'n' roll records tend to incorporate these situations, like where you find yourself out in a very tranquil kind of wilderness, where you climb through a door and people are pounding drums and hitting timpani and working away on trumpets - it's great. It's a real privilege and a real unique situation.

JP: Is there a story or some kind of deeper meaning behind the title Rain on the Humming Wire?

JL: I don't know how deep it goes but it's more like there are a few songs on the record that seem to summarise the feeling of the whole record, to me. That line from the song 'Creaks' and a few songs on the new record seem to sum up that retrospective feeling which is kind of... there's a melancholy feeling on the record but it's a lot of looking back and seeing how far you've come and what you've done.

(The title for Rain on the Humming Wire) comes from me thinking about this place in the hills of Perth where I grew up. After there were storms, the whole place would be buzzing but there was no one around to hear it. All the powerlines would send out this buzzing sound. So I thought it would be interesting, with a record that is about looking back a lot of the time, to have its title taken from the very place where I first found myself looking forward, as a young person, towards the future.

JP: Was it hard writing this album given the success of 2007's Cruel Guards? Did you feel under much pressure?

JL: Was there pressure? No, not really. I mean the pressure mounts after a while when time starts to get away from you. That's when people start going, "You don't want to leave it too much longer because it will have a bad effect on your band" and that kind of thing. To have our first real taste of success with the last record was more exciting than anything else - it's like you get a taste for something that you created, from a simple little song, and you get to see the power it has. You hear (the song) finding its way into people's workplaces, on the radio and on the television and you see how differently people treat you. It just makes you wonder what it would be like to have something even greater and successful in different parts of the world. It's a very powerful thing. So if anything it gave me hints in terms of what is possible for us in the future, which is exciting.

JP: Do fans ever approach you and tell you what your music means to them?

JL: Yeah, man, I've had that happen many times over the past few years. Sometimes it's really sad when people tell me that they played a bunch of our songs at a funeral for their brother or something like that or at someone's wedding. It's very honest and very flattering at the same time. It's beautiful that people take their music seriously and says things like, 'This is a song that means a lot to us' - I really respect that.

JP: You gave fans the chance to make the music video for your latest single 'Endless Road'. While the winner has already been announced, were you surprised by the way people interpreted the song visually?

JL: Yeah, but I mean most of the surprise was in the simple fact of where all these clips were coming from. We thought we might get a couple from overseas and that everything else would be from around home, but there was actually only a couple from Australia and a spread of 50 - 60 video clips to go through from elsewhere. There was a couple from India, Poland and like three from Russia and a few from the US and a complete cross-section of the globe. It was very beautiful to listen to the song over and over and see it interpreted differently. Some times it was just a bunch of kids playing out the back of their house in Spain, which was really great to watch. I have a lot of respect for the people that put in the time for that.

JP: Looking ahead, you're one of only a few Australian bands playing the St. Jerome's Laneway Festival next year. Do you have anything special planned to upstage the international bands coming out for the festival?

JL: Well, firstly, we're just really stoked because there's a lot of up-and-coming bands on the bill that will be very exciting to be around. For us, who have been around a bit longer, it's very nice to be put with all these groups.

We're also working on some new songs, so we're hoping to get something new out as well. We'd love to release some brand new songs by the time Laneways comes around. So hopefully we'll have some new material so we can get up and do what we do. We've got to the point where we're very confident in our live show and never feel intimidated, which is a nice feeling.

JP: So maybe a new EP by the time Laneways rolls around?

JL: Well, this album took quite a long time so we want to make sure that we can keep new material coming out very quickly. No promises, but it's very much in everyone's mind to get a regular stream of new songs coming out because we think that it would be a nice way to take on the new year and Laneway as well, because of all the festivals, I think it's the coolest. Laneway always has new, relevant groups and it's nice that they get brought here and I think that it's going to be great.

WORDS: Jack Pilven