We decided to scrap the World Blackout Day thing and get the kids together all over the world, just filming themselves singing the song. It's just a celebration to give back to them really.

The song's called 'You're Not Alone' and it's as transparent as that, really. Don't get down about it, you've got your friends and people around you.

We did an acoustic show for a girl who pledged for an acoustic show. It got ruined, so we went back and did it again to surprise her! There were 30 kids in the room, and only two or three were from the same town. It's amazing that they've made friends over the last four or five years that look like they'll last into the future. To think we've had that kind of effect on peoples lives, it's mind-blowing.

-With things like that acoustic show, do you try to stay accessible to your fans then?
As much as we can. The idea of them being like fans...I don't know. They're just like us. They don't have instruments and aren't on stage, that's the only difference. They're just not as cool [laughing].

No, we say nobody's better than anybody else. Everybody who's in a band is just a bloke, or a woman...although women shouldn't be in bands. Wait...this is for Female First? Disregard that, women of the UK. You are welcome to try!

-You came through the South Wales music scene, which has produced a lot of fantastic bands. How did you find it coming through?
Difficult, at first. There's a lot of bands in South Wales, and a lot of them are good. After a certain point, the bands get really supportive of each other. Bands like Funeral For A Friend and Lostprophets gave us a chance to play shows to people, which we weren't!

People seem to forget, they say that we owe a lot to Lostprophets, which is technically true, I guess. They also influenced the British music scene. All those kind of bands, you can trace it back. They made British bands cool, basically.

We were in a band for five years before we even got a proper show. Then, Funeral For A Friend gave us our first chance. It just goes to show, if you keep working at it...sometimes, it might happen!

We're not going to pretend we've not had certain things go our way, because we have. We also worked very, very hard for a long time. We've never really taken our foot off the gas since 2004. We've definitely had things go our way, because you need a bit of a luck. I'm quite proud of how hard we've worked.

-Looking to the future, what's planned after this weekend?
We've got Merthyr Rock in our hometown on the 4th September. It's been put together this summer for the first time. The line-up's brilliant. We're lucky enough to headline it because it's our hometown.

We're really honoured to be able to do that. You've got Funeral For A Friend doing it, Skindred, Young Guns, My Passion, Attack! Attack!. This incredible line-up of British bands, for 20 quid for a day.

That's pretty much our last show before our headline tour. Then we're going to begin writing our fourth record through September and October. Then it's from then until November. If you want to come along, come along!

-I'll try my best!
Not you, I meant them [the readers]! You can come as well, but I was talking to the dictaphone. You're more than welcome as well. That'll be fun. Then a bit more writing, possibly some recording. Maybe some surprises around Christmas, we shall see.

Female First - Alistair McGeorge