With their second album, The Evening Descends (read the review here), just released, Oklahoma-based Evangelicals are set for busy times ahead; an intensive tour regime kicking off in mid-February. Here, charismatic frontman Josh Jones talks new albums, sleeping in rooms without windows, and hopefully never maturing.

So the new album has just been released, how do you feel about the finished product?

I feel pretty good about it. Making a record takes a long time, and by the time you get to the end of it you don’t know if what you have is a piece of shit or if it’s great.  Because you’re so up close to it you have no sense of objectivity, and you’ve heard it a million times, so it’s hard to say how I feel at the end of a record. Honestly, by the times we finished both of our records I hate them by the end of it. Like if you could take your favourite record of all time, and listen to it 3000 times, then you probably would not like it anymore.

How do you think it has been received by fans and others?

Well it depends you know, some people like it, some people don’t like it, but that’s the nature of all of this kind of stuff.  Like, my parents are always asking me how that stuff makes me feel? If you get a really good review does that mean I’m really excited? But there’s so much of that stuff, and there are so many reviews these days on the internet, and so much information coming at you that if you take your time to read them all and they’re all great then you’re going to start ego-tripping, and if they’re all bad then you’re just going to be a depressed mess, you know what I mean? So I always say that you can’t base the bands emotional well-being on the state of reviewers, or even people, or even fans. You just try to make the music that you hope people are going to like, and if it works out then that’s great, and if it doesn’t then no big deal, it’s just music.

How was the process of making and recording this new album? Was it easier the second time around?

In some ways it was easier, because making records is always a learning process. So we knew more about how to make a record the second time around, but in some ways it was harder because there were these intense periods of isolation while making the record, and so that can be weird, a lot of paranoia. I was in a really shitty studio there for a few months just by myself trying to finish this stuff in a really bad part of town, and I wouldn’t see anybody, and I wouldn’t see any friends or anybody, and so that kind of stuff can get depressing.

What’s the meaning behind the album’s title, The Evening Descends?

Well during this period of isolation when I was recording this stuff I had a really bad sleep schedule, and I would go days, maybe sometimes even weeks literally without seeing the sun. I was sleeping in a place that didn’t have any windows, and so I think for a week or two at one point it was like I was living in Norway or some shit. It was like an endless night. And so that’s where the name came from. And that can be very depressing you know? Night’s fun whenever you have the day before it. But when it’s all you know, man, I’ll tell you what, it can be pretty fucking depressing.

It sounds like it. So where did the name of the band come from?

Well it hadn’t been taken which is important. It was a band name that was available so that’s one of the reasons that we chose it. Another thing is when we named the band it was during a time period when it was really popular to name your band something really, really long. This is like 3 or 4 years ago, and there was the Australian band Architecture in Helsinki and all these other bands, and I like all of these bands actually. We had a lot of bands around here, a friend of ours, who had a really long band name, and they would go to make flyers and couldn’t really fit their name on the flyers. So we made ours a little shorter, it’s good when you can put it on a t-shirt, something people will know. Like I said, the main part was that it was available.

What was the big breaking point in which you realised music could be an occupation for you? What lead to you getting signed?

One thing was, The Flaming Lips’ manager, Scott Booker, well he lives around here. And I used to always go and bug him, to try to help us out, and he had me make up a list of 100 labels that I liked, and so we sent those out. And this guy Phil at Misra record label picked up on it and liked it and so we signed with them, and then he left that label and went to Dead Ocean and we went with him. And so that’s kind of what happened.

What approach do you take to writing your songs? Does a lot of the music just come to you? Or do you find it a challenging process trying to make the sounds in your head come out just right?

It’s not hard to write melodies for me, like I’ve never had any problem writing melodies. However words are really hard, maybe because I don’t read enough books or something. But yeah words are tough, but the melodies and things are easy, and once you have that recording can take a while, but that’s part of the writing process for us.

What do you strive for when writing and making songs?

Well to make music that people are going to like. But yeah I’m going to make music that I’m going to like, and hopefully that will get through to others. Because music is a form of communication, and if you make something that nobody likes, then it makes you feel like you’re failing at being a communicator.

Do you think you have matured a little since So Gone? Does it all feel any easier now?

Well, fortunately I’m not any more mature than I was, at any point. In some ways I feel like I know less now about anything in the world then I did a few years ago, and sometimes I feel like I know more, so it’s hard to say. But I feel that we’re a little better at making records and getting the sounds that we want and stuff like that.

From the 15th February you guys are playing about 43 live shows in about 48 days, Are you looking forward to touring the new album?

Yeah I feel good about it. It’s like a work-out plan. We’re working out, and staying busy. That’s a good thing. And well people want to talk about how gruelling that kind of stuff is but it’s really not. You’re getting to travel around and play rock and roll music and all that type of stuff. So it’s easy, and fun.

What albums are you looking forward to in 2008?

I think Antony and the Johnsons have a new record coming out. I’m looking forward to a new Of Montreal record, I think they have a new one coming out too. What else? Hmm, they’ll probably all sneak up on me by surprise.