York's run of big-name bands continues with Gomez on Wednesday. Deep-voiced singer Ben Ottewell tells Charles Hutchinson how the band set up in an old warehouse to record their fourth album.

WITHIN a day, the tickets had gone.

The returning Gomez would be playing three "exclusive low-key gigs at three out-of-town Barfly venues", first Cardiff, then Liverpool, and finally Fibbers in York on night three, March 10.

The band with roots in a Southport garage and Ilkley, and now spread between London, Bath and Los Angeles, is reconvening once more to promote new single Catch Me Up, whose release on Monday coincides with the trio of semi-acoustic shows.

Last together on stage in America, where they played the likes of New York's Irving Plaza and the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco, Gomez will be showcasing new material from their fourth album, Split The Difference, for the first time in Britain at next week's gigs.

Band member Ben Ottewell - he of the deep voice of an old gentleman of the blues - explains why Gomez are making a low-key return.

"We just thought it would be interesting for us and interesting for the fans for us to do these stripped-down shows. When we first started, we were a lot more stripped down but the only time we've really done it since then is for radio sessions, which we've done in San Francisco and Australia, where they've gone down really well," he says.

"It also gives us the chance to do the new songs differently to the album versions. There'll be a couple of acoustic guitars, maybe one electric, but we'll cut out the samples."

The band will be playing a full-scale British tour in May at the time of the album release but first comes the chamber version of Gomez.

"It'll be good for the fans and good for us because it'll be like revealing another side of our songs for us. We won't be able to run around the stage and we'll have to think about how we'll arrange the songs," says Ben.

"It should be fun for us, and we'll see how we cope. It's going to be nice and mellow."

Aside from the three gigs in three nights, the focus of next week will be on the launch of Catch Me Up. What made Gomez choose this particular track for the lead single off Split The Difference?

"It was the one we all felt was representative of the record, but essentially it's a promotional tool and I don't pretend to know any more what will get into the Top Ten. We go with our feelings and we take advice from everywhere," Ben says.

"Catch Me Up struck us as an upbeat tune and a lot of the record is like that, and it's also good to have singing Tom Gray singing lead vocals on a single."

The album was recorded in a warehouse with an industrial noise licence, somewhere near Brighton.

"We'd looked around for a while but there were very few places that would be able to accommodate us, so we found this basic warehouse and put up as much soundproofing as we could to create our studio," recalls Ben. "Apparently we didn't make us much noise as the garage opposite."

Gomez were not recording in the lap of luxury.

"It was a pretty functional place, with not a lot to do," says Ben. "Table tennis, fish and chips around the corner and two newsagents, but then we were there to make music."

And make music they did, some 50 tracks in sketch form.

"It was good for us working there as it allowed us to focus on the music. In the past we've been fairly lackadaisical but we have to focus now when we get together because Ian guitarist and vocalist Ian Ball has moved out to Los Angeles as he's married an American girl," Ben says.

For the first time Gomez have recruited outside assistance on an album, in the form of celebrated producer Tchad Blake, whose production skills have been in demand from the likes of Tom Waits and Crowded House.

"After we'd done the main part of the album work in our studio, we took the recordings down to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios at Bath and moved it up a scale. That's when Tchad Blake came to work with us," says Ben. "We've always had good engineers and these terms - producer/engineer - are vague anyway, but Tchad is someone we massively respect in the band.

"We've borrowed his gear every time we've been to Real World, and it just made sense to get him in. His main role was definition, like making the drums sound massive."

What difference has Blake made? "The album is a lot louder, which may sound odd, but there's definitely a difference. It's a loud, brazen record," Ben says.

"It's just a little less awkward. Maybe In Our Gun released in March 2003 was a little inaccessible for some people, and maybe that was because we hadn't played together for six months when we started the sessions, because we'd had a break. This time we've come into the studio off the road, so we were playing well.

"There'd been all sorts of problems at the time we made In Our Gun, in that we took too long off and came up with the goods too late. We ended up going to America with no record company support, but people still wanted to see us which brought us out of our lull.

"It feels great to play rather than spending days programming things in the studio, where it can get dull and make you feel like you're not making music."

So welcome back the revitalised Gomez, with only one final question to answer. Is Split The Difference as good as their 1998 Mercury Music Prize-winning debut album, Bring It On?

"I listen to that old record now and it just sounds slow, though there is a certain vibe to it," says Ben.

"Working as our own producers, you learn as you go along; you learn you don't have to fill out a song and you learn how to write a song too. You learn what you're good at."

Gomez play Fibbers, York, on Wednesday, March 10. SOLD OUT.

Updated: 15:26 Thursday, March 04, 2004