The Levellers on why their latest album was four years in the making

PUBLISHED: 08:40 EST, 27 June 2012 | UPDATED: 10:14 EST, 27 June 2012

They may be celebrating their 25th anniversary this year but The Levellers are a band who like to take their time when it comes to making music.

The six-piece released their latest album, Static On The Airwaves, this week but have revealed that the record was actually 'years in the making.'

Now looking forward to touring the album for the rest of the year and into 2013, lead singer and guitarist Mike Chadwick spoke to Mail Online about how the record has already been received and why they waited for it's release.

'Static On The Airwaves has been four years in the making, so it has been quite a long process – many band's entire careers are shorter than that,' Chadwick said.

They're back! After four years The Levellers have released their latest album Static On The Airwaves

'Originally we wanted to go away and make another one straight away after releasing Letters From The Underground, but we realised it was too soon to go back into the studio, as it would have ended up sounding too similar.

'Luckily, being our own record label means we were under no time pressure, so we took the time to write an enormous amount of new music; over 30 songs and slowly whittle them down and hone them over time to the 12 we finally chose for the album.'

The band chose to have Sean Lakeman produce the album as they had worked with him previously, and recorded it in the Czech Republic.

Having been around for a quarter of a century, many would think it can be difficult for bands to come up with new and fresh material, and Chadwick doesn't deny this.

A long time coming: The band said the album was 'four years in the making' as they wanted it to be different

'It is quite difficult to avoid repeating yourself too much – and indeed, it does happen,' he explained.

'But whilst the over-arching subjects we talk about from album to album remain roughly the same, the metaphors that we use and the contemporary comparisons that we draw on to highlight those subjects evolve with our own experiences.'

Chadwick went on to say that the band have been 'bowled over' by the reaction to their new album.

'Unusually, (and possibly uniquely for us), both the press and the fans reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. We always believe in everything that we do, but obviously it is wonderful when the reaction to you music is as positive as it has been for this record.'

As well as looking forward to performing at festivals such as Hop Farm, Latitude and Averbury Rocks this summer, the band also have their own musical creation to look forward to - Beautiful Days, which takes place in Devon in August.

The award-winning event will celebrate it's 10th anniversay this year, so understandably it's going to be particularly special for The Levellers.

'The basic ethos is that the festival is that has a very broad spectrum of music on offer, there is absolutely no sponsorship or advertising, and we put a huge focus on making the event family friendly and affordable as possible,' Chadwick said.

'The formula seems to work – we have sold out every year, and indeed this year all 15,000 tickets were sold over 4 months ahead of the festival – our fastest year ever!

'This year, I am most looking forward to having John Lydon headlining with Public Image, it should be a highly entertaining experience.'

Static On The Airwaves is available to buy now and for more information on Beautiful Days festival visit the website www.beautifuldays.org