SIPPING coffee and eating pancakes in American diners.

It’s a lifestyle that Matt Thomson could quite easily get used to.

But you cannot really blame The Amazons frontman who has not stopped since his band’s big breakthrough with their debut album in 2017 which was followed by relentless touring.

Now the Reading four-piece are about to do it all over again as their follow-up record, Future Dust, is released tomorrow, Friday.

Matt was in the States as part of a promotional tour when Weekend spoke to him.

He said: “I’m currently sitting in a New York diner drinking coffee, eating pancakes and talking to someone from Warrington so that’s our life at the moment.

“We’ve signed with Island Records out here and we’re doing some promo work before we come out and do a proper tour.”

Their following is no doubt growing across the pond but Warrington’s crowd at Neighbourhood Weekender will be the first to hear some of the new material from Future Dust.

Matt added: “We’re so excited. It seems to have come around very quick. It’s been really hard to pick the set now we’ve got these new songs.

“I think we’ll put in the new singles and then maybe a couple of other album tracks. They stand up with the first record.”

The Amazons made their breakthrough in 2017 when they were hotly tipped by the likes of BBC Radio 1 and NME.

Matt said: “We devoted our lives to touring that first record. We put all our energies into becoming a live band.

“So much so that we found it alien to come back from that experience and become a writing and recording band again.

“You don’t get much practice of that when you’re on the road. You get used to that aspect of having your ‘road family’ with all your crew that come with you.

“And then you say goodbye to them and then it’s just the four of you and you’ve got to work out what you want to say on the next album and how you want to say it.”

They escaped to Three Cliffs Bay near Swansea to help with that.

Matt added: “We’d just come off tour in Japan and Korea. We were kind of sick of the sight of each other and took some time off but then found it really hard to get back into the groove again.

“We worked out we needed to go off and break out of our routine. We stayed at this amazing house called Treetops that had been made out of wood and was by the sea. It had a really cool vibe so that helped inspire us to write the record.

“It was almost like being on tour again. We had to cook for each other, listen to music together and sleep in the same room and it got us into that groove again.”

The album also saw them doffing their cap to the pioneers of rock and roll.

Matt went on a journey from Led Zeppelin to Howlin’ Wolf and read the Jerry Lee Lewis biography Hellfire.

He said: “That was a big part of working out what we wanted to do with this record. It was definitely a process of exploring the genre of rock and roll, working out its origins and trying to capture that essence which is probably lacking in a lot of music at the moment.”

So does Matt reckon rock has lost some of its edge?

He added: “I’d hate to contribute to the ‘let’s bring the good old days back’ conversation because they’re not coming back.

“It’s been done. Rock and roll has gone from dark nightclubs to theatres to arenas to stadiums and back again. Everything that rock and roll needed to do has happened. It’s all been achieved and we can carry on doing for it fun but I would like to see more fellow musicians taking an interest in where rock and roll has come from. They should be unapologetic about being a rock band. Too many bands are worrying about using track beats or synths.

“Be what you are – with this record we know exactly what we are. I don’t think you’re going to get a more unapologetic rock and roll record this year.”