"You can try and pull apart why things did or didn't happen, which we've done on occasion, but the record is the only constant, and I think it's a pretty good one and I'm still pretty comfortable listening to it."
So says Jon Maher, bassist with Leeds band Duels, about his band's 2006 debut album, the moody indie-pop belter The Bright Lights And What I Should Have Learned.
His admiration for the album isn't conceit either, as critical acclaim was plentiful.
Even the album's producer, Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford – who went on to helm Florence and The Machine's hit album Lungs – said in an interview with scene last year that the album was one of his "proudest moments" and the band "literally criminally underrated".
Comprising frontman Jon Foulger, with brother Jim on guitar, cousin Katherine Bottrill on keys, drummer James Kenosha and bassist Maher, the band enjoyed support slots on big tours with The Zutons, The Rakes and Blur's Graham Coxon, and appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, T in the Park and the Kaiser Chief's big Leeds Millennium Square bash in April 2006.
Major success seemed imminent, but never materialised.
Pushing ahead, the band recorded the follow up album, 2008's The Barbarians Move In. Predictably, it was a darker, rockier, more intense affair, but Maher doesn't think it's that far removed from their debut.
"I don't hear as big a change as most suggest to be honest," he says. "I think the difference is that Barbarians is more thematically focussed and sonically consistent. TBLAWISHL is, for better or worse, a patchwork quilt of influences and references."
Like its predecessor, Barbarians got great reviews – the NME gushed about its"unequivocal brilliance" – but again this didn't lead to world domination.
Katherine Bottrill decided to break from the band and since then, besides a storming set at Live At Leeds in 2009, the band have been largely quiet, but not, Maher insists, idle.
"Musically there's been activity," he says, "though not all in the public domain.
"Between us we're producing, guesting and writing for various acts both locally and from further afield. Personally, we've been busy 'hatching and matching' – three of the band now own sheds!"
And for those fans that have been laying dormat, cicada-like, there's promising news about new material.
"I can tell you Duels III is something that, to date, has had a Chinese Democracy-esque work ethic," explains Maher, making a reference to Gun N' Roses famously delayed 6th album.
"There was an initial batch of songs and ideas which stuttered and spluttered into the world. Time will tell if they survive.
"I just hope it's an album, with a start, middle and end. I know a lot of artists are dropping the idea of albums in this digital age, but I think it's still important to us a group. You wouldn't want a novelist releasing the odd chapter. You need the full journey. And the journey will dictate the sound."
Former !Forward, Russia¡ man and Dance To The Radio label founder Whiskas has been helping out but, according to Maher, it's unlikely he'll become a fifth member of the band, despite what you might read on Wikipedia.
"Whiskas 'joined' the band for the first III sessions." explains Maher. "Since then he's had two babies – an actual baby and (his new band] Honour Before Glory, which Jim also plays in. He may well be involved with the recording of III, but we haven't got that far yet. So I would say his involvement at the moment is a 50/50 split of 'director of football' and 'fanboy'!"
In the few short year's since TBLAWISHL it feels like the music industry has irreversibly changed thanks to myspace, blogging and the rise of the download, but this doesn't concern Maher.
"We don't really think about the industry element any more," he admits. "It's tiresome. We put no expectation on Duels to pay the bills. We're happy being locked in a room arguing, then sporadically releasing the outcome of those arguments for people to hear – no more, no less."
This easygoing attitude carries over to live shows. The band's forthcoming date at the Imagine Festival in Basal, Switzerland – for which they're playing a free warm-up 'shindig' at Milos bar in Leeds next Tuesday – came about from casual invitation.
"It just popped into the email inbox." says Maher. "We get plenty of odd emails - stuff like Slovakian teenagers saying how The Healing helped them pass their driving test, which is nice – but this festival just looked like a really pleasant thing to be involved with and we're really looking forward to it."
Jun 8, Milos, 10-12 Call Lane, Leeds, 8pm, free. Tel: 0113 2457101.
www.duelsmusic.co.uk