Scottish indie-rockers The View announced their arrival in dramatic fashion a couple of years ago with their debut album Hats Off To The Buskers, which topped the UK charts and achieved platinum status. The band’s follow-up Which Bitch?, released last month, hasn’t sold in quite the same quantities, but The View retain their hugely devoted following.

Hot Press has an audience with the group’s frontman, Kyle Falconer, on the day of their show at the Dublin Academy. As it happens, tonight will also see Manchester United taking on Internazionale in the first leg of their Champions League tie, and The View’s music is to be used in a Nike commercial that will be screened at half-time. This would appear to mark a noticeable reversal from a couple of years ago, when The View turned down an offer from a jeans company keen to use one of their songs in an advert.
“I think that was for Levi’s or someone,” says Falconer, sitting in the band’s dressing room. “We were young at the time and we didn’t think that having a song in an ad was a cool thing to do. But now, if somebody offers you a million quid, you don’t turn it down (laughs).”
In addition to the band’s trademark rockers, Which Bitch? also features some interesting stylistic diversions, including the baroque sounding ‘Distant Doubloon’, and the elegant ballad ‘Unexpected’, perhaps the finest track on the record.
“That was written when I was about 15 or 16,” explains Kyle. “It was about my Dad dying, so I never really wanted to show it to the band, because it was more of a personal thing. But then Owen (Morris, the album’s producer) asked me, ‘What else have you got?’ and I played him that track. He said, ‘Cool, let’s do it.’”
The album was recorded with Morris (best known for his work with The View’s heroes, Oasis) in rural Wales. Was it good to work somewhere where distractions were at a minimum?
“No, I’d rather do it in New York City,” he shrugs. “We’ve always ended up in that studio in Wales, and we’re always saying, ‘We don’t want to go there!’ But before we did the first record, Owen said, ‘It’s dead exciting; there are motorbikes, boats – whatever you want.’ Unfortunately, we didn’t get shown anything, not even the quad bikes. The Pigeon Detectives were there before us, and they got to play around with the bikes and cars and stuff.
“That was the only place that the record company could afford, at least for us anyway. I’m sure Kings Of Leon would get somewhere else. It was good, but you’re still raging a wee bit at the same time. Twisted Wheel are good friends of ours, and their singer is always like, ‘I’ve got to bail, I’ve got to go across to LA’. I’m going, ‘You jammy bastard!’ Or Pete from The Zutons – he’ll go, ‘I’m just going to nip across to LA.’ We never get to go any place.”
Despite failing to match the commercial success of The View’s debut, Which Bitch? nonetheless has some high profile fans, including Lily Allen, who is pictured on the band’s website holding three copies of the album.
“We’ve done a couple of festivals that she’s been at, and some TV things. We just go on the piss with her. She was saying stuff about us in the papers, so Pete, our guitarist, supposedly called her ‘a fat grubby shite’, or something really bad. I think she heard about that, so she came up to us pissed at a festival. She wanted to make a truce. We went, ‘Okay, you be a bitch and we’ll be cunts.’”
Another renowned artist who has been highly complimentary about the album is Mark Ronson.
“He’s a good pal, I go out for drinks with him in London. I went to his birthday party and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever been to in my life. There was a room that was like the Emerald City, except made of jelly. You could pierce it and drink the vodka inside. It was just insane man, honestly.”
Heretofore, The View have been prohibited from entering America due to Falconer’s conviction for cocaine possession. Might they finally tour the US on this album?
“Hopefully. We’ve got a new record deal; our previous label there dropped us. But we’ve got the new deal, and we’re going to take some drug tests and whatever. We’d love to go over.”

Which Bitch? is out now on Sony