When we first talked about getting back together, the main emphasis was on trying to do a record. Doing shows on and off for a year and a half was a really good way for us to create some momentum to make a record. Obviously we didn’t hit the ground running—we had to crank the engine up again. Because for us, it was a bit like, What kind of record would we do? Would it be like Pygmalion—which was more electronic, sample-based, ambient—or would it be something closer to our earlier stuff, which was noisier and more band-based? We ended up going for something that has the momentum of playing live. It’s a stepping stone record for us in terms of getting back into doing Slowdive—a familiar record for anyone who's heard us.

We’re all really excited about doing another record at this point. I always think of records as a moment in time. The next moment is maybe where we push the boundaries a bit more, where it doesn’t have to necessarily be so familiar.

You were the primary composer on Pygmalion____. Was the process more collaborative this time?

This one was definitely a lot more collaborative than Pygmalion. A lot of Pygmalion was done in my bedroom, then I’d bring it to everyone. We were at a weird point in the band then. I was kinda dragging people along with that record.

Everyone had a hand in bringing the new songs to fruition. “Falling Ashes” was a song that Simon [Scott, drummer] had more input on—he's super into field music and ambient stuff. Which was interesting because Simon was the first person to leave the band, so he wasn't involved with Pygmalion at all. He still says that’s the record he wished he was involved with, because that’s more of where he’s at musically these days.

What’s one perspective you brought to this album that perhaps you didn’t have before?

Around Pygmalion, we were all just starting to get more familiar with how studios work and working away with our own selves. We finished the band right at the point when you could buy a laptop and a couple of microphones and make a record, where computers were getting smarter with this stuff. Bringing that part of how you can work now to Slowdive was interesting.

About a year and a half ago, we started popping in studios. We went back to the first studio we ever did anything in [Whitehouse Recording Studio in Somerset], which was exactly the same. What would happen is, we’d do a few days in a studio here and there, then I’d bring it back to my studio in Cornwall and play around with it, send stuff to the other guys. We’d get back together again and work on something else or rework the old ideas. In the same way we made our first album, it was written and recorded at the same time. We still work together quite well—it would’ve been pretty disastrous if we’d lost that part of the Slowdive chemistry.

Why do you think shoegaze has stuck around?