While they went straight into working up a new record, they also did something that many ‘new’ bands feeling the pressure for an album from fans and their label would not do - they took their time.

Rather than jumping into the studio and knocking out an identikit follow-up that would shift units rather than define a career, they took a full 12 months to work on a new album. You see, when we meet up with Ben, the best part of three years on from the release of their debut, there’s another storm brewing on the horizon, and this time it has nothing to do with the unseasonable Leicestershire weather.

Instead, at the time of our interview taking place, the band are about to release the follow-up to that stunning debut. That said, it seems that, as with many of the finer things in life, this didn’t come easy.

“We were touring our first album for two years,” Ben explains. “We tried to start writing a little bit on tour but we found it really difficult. It was obviously the first time we had ever tried to do that and we found that the two worlds of touring and recording were not really working well together. I think that was because we were putting all of our energy into the live performance so our creative energy was suffering. It wasn’t until we stopped and got into a studio and a writing space together that the ideas started to come again. It took its time. Mike would describe it as fishing. You cast your rod and you just have to wait for the ideas to come in.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before they caught a few bites. Written in Brighton, Nashville and Los Angeles before being recorded in Brussels and London, How Did We Get So Dark? saw the band join forces with producer Jolyon Thomas (whose previous studio credits include Daughter and SCUM). After those transatlantic writing sessions, the band headed to the renowned ICP Studios in Brussels for the bulk of the recording. It’s a venue that Ben describes as a “Willy Wonka factory of equipment”. Even so, it seems that the band’s extended winter stints in the Belgian city became a little much.

“We basically lived there from November until just before Christmas and then we went back for the whole of January. We hated Brussels by the end of it! Brussels is beautiful but with the language barrier and it being winter and cold and bleak, it was difficult for us to do anything other than be in the studio. That was also a good thing, though. We were able to focus in on what we needed to do, but there wasn’t any getaway. In the end we used that to our advantage.”

A lot of songs start from drums up. I send Mike a load of drum ideas and he will send a demo back with something he has played over it

But, how do you go about writing the follow-up to one of the hottest records of the last decade? Well, when it comes to Royal Blood it seems that trust is at the centre of everything that they do.

“A lot of songs start from drums up. I send Mike a load of drum ideas and he will send a demo back with something he has played over it. But then a lot starts with Mike and maybe lyrics. The first album was a bit of a fluke. It was the first time we had ever written an album. It was the first time Mike had written lyrics and been a frontman. On this second record we were aware that people will hear it, we didn’t know that on the first record and we were just bouncing ideas off each other and making demos that turned into an album.

“With this record, we really focused on the songwriting. Mike had to put a little more time into it because he creates the melody and then I create the song with him. We have to just trust each other that what we are doing is good. If one of us is not really feeling it then it is a sign that we should move on to something else.”

Aside from infinitely higher outside expectations, there was one major difference for Thatcher this time in the studio. While the band’s Tom Dalgety-produced debut saw drums and cymbals tracked separately, this time live takes were the order of the day. Well, the order of many days, as it turns out.

“[Tracking drums] was frustrating for me that it took so long for what I did,” Ben says with a smile. “I was in and out of the studio within three takes. But then they would move a microphone slightly and get me to do it again. We were two or three songs short and went into RAK Studio with our old producer Tom Dalgety and he knows the DNA of the band. He was less precise with those things. He said to just set up the drums and the mics and do my take. My takes were done in a day with those last songs. I thought, ‘Why couldn’t I have done it all like this?!’ I had spent two months tracking drums and then I did the Hook, Line And Sinker and How Did We Get So Dark? drum tracks in a day. I just want to get it done, I want it to sound good but also in that moment and raw.”

It certainly sounds raw to our ears - Ben’s matching of his Gretsch USA Custom kit and Zildjian cymbals, in fact, sounds absolutely monstrous.

Jolyon had a big part to play in the drum tones,” Ben says. “We worked together on it. He is very tuneful, especially with the toms. He liked the toms to be in key whereas I wouldn’t care as much. I was more into the different snare drums and how I wanted them to sound. Mike’s good for that as well as while I’m playing in the studio he will be listening and then we’ll swap and he’ll play drums so I can hear how they sound.”

While earlier in the interview Ben alluded to a treasure trove of gear at every turn within ICP Studios, he opted to track the bulk of How Did We Get So Dark? with a very familiar kit.

“We just changed the snares up and cymbals. The actual kit was the same one that I use live - my Gretsch USA Custom. I’m using a 24" kick. It was between that and a 26" but before I was using a 22" so I thought I’d make my way up gradually. I’ve fallen in love with the 24". I change my snares quite a lot. At the moment I’m using a Morgan Davies snare. My drum tech makes those, he’s the guy that makes those drums. He swaps out my snare drums but he’s not biased, he will often put a Gretsch snare on the kit, but at the moment I’m using this 14"x8" Morgan Davies birch snare. I like quite big drums and cymbals. I like thuddy, tubby drums and the tone of dark cymbals. I like the cymbals to be a bit more authentic.”