AS THE rasp of Ben Ottewell’s voice tears through the foggy crackle of Gomez’s Get Miles, I remember a line from Tijuana Lady, a few tracks deeper into their seminal Bring It On album – “Mariachi Desperado / I’ll keep you warm in my silky poncho”.

Those lines capture Gomez, buccaneer romantics whose boots are as dusty as their records sound – like listening to beautiful static through a cloud of blue smoke. On the advent of their Bring It On 10th anniversary tour of Britain, which sees them play the Forum in Kentish Town in September, Gomez drummer Olly Peacock is sentimental.

“Whippin’ Piccadilly was about going to see Beck in Manchester. We had driven from Sheffield to see him. Things got very messy indeed – you can get the description of what went on if you listen to the song! And Beck was amazing,” he adds laughing. Peacock does not do self indulgence however; the album that earned them the Mercury Music Award is now a decade old and Gomez, it appears, have grown up.

“Back then it was for fun, us hanging out drinking. At the time, there were great bands about like the Super Furry Animals, we just went out there wanting to do something special. Our influences are dance culture, jazz, Beck. At the time, we wanted to make something different from everything else. We have developed a lot as artists from that album. Now, with a producer [Brian Deck who has worked with Counting Crows], we don’t have to focus on the construction of the album. It gives us more freedom. We love to mix it up from one album to the next. There are lots of different textures and sounds in our latest music.”

Described as “an intriguing blend of swamp blues, bar-room rock and eerie power” by one of the judges of the Mercury Music Award, Gomez have released four studio albums since Bring It On. They are a British band which unusually has more notoriety across the pond in the US.

Peacock bears the bitterness of exile, speaking from his home in New York: “In the UK, it’s a lot more fickle. People are concerned with fashionable stuff. Magazines can be very scathing. It’s very difficult. Bands these days can be very image focused. But it’s difficult to maintain an image for more than a couple of albums. It’s interesting to analyse why some bands succeed.”

It’s frustrating to hear such resentment from such a seminal band; but it’s easy for fans to forget that flavours of the month have waxed and waned incessantly since Liquid Skin hit number two in the British charts. Gomez have been hitting the road hard during their time in the States, becoming a class live act as they use touring to raise their profile.

“Live is the only time you can recognise people enjoying your music. Usually you never see the effect of the music – to see everyone enjoying themselves is special. The US culture has a much larger scale. On every level, there is live music. Some people travel for 10 hours to come and see us.”

Peacock adds that it’s important to keep the mood sweet in the band with so much touring: “We’ve learnt to take some time away from each other – I mean Paul (Blackburn – bass) lives in Detroit, Ian (Bell – vocals and guitar) lives in LA and I live in New York. It helps to take some time away from each other for a bit of space.

“We’ve had a lot of problems with record labels [they were controversially dropped by Hut Records, a Virgin offshoot] but ATO, our new label, has supported us which meant that we can go on tour.” Peacock insists that 2008 Gomez is the finest vintage yet: “As songwriters, we’ve developed a lot since Whippin’ Piccadilly. Musically, we are better all round. Our live performances are a million times better than they were back in 1998. While we’re more intelligent, naivety is something that people like.”

But try as he might, there is something in the nature of Bring It On that lends itself to the search of lost time. To a generation, some essential fragment of our adolescence got caught in the hissing weave of its creation. Perhaps that’s why they’re doing an anniversary tour, reliving old moments.

“Maybe our fondest memory is when we played Glastonbury in 98 or 99, live on the Pyramid Stage. The crowd was huge, record-breaking. The sun was just setting – we had to rise to the occasion.”

Sentimentality, in Gomez’s case, is a damn fine failing. Bring it on again, for old times’ sake.

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