Disclosure on success, songwriting and Sam Smith

It's been a busy couple of years for electronic music duo, Disclosure.

Since Sam Smith collaboration, Latch, catapulted Surrey brothers Guy and Howard to fame (and triple platinum status in the US alone), they have racked up Grammy, Brit, and Mercury Prize nominations, along with a number one album Settle.

As they return with their sophomore album, Caracal, Howard spoke to the BBC about their whirlwind success and what we can expect from their much anticipated comeback.

So why did you call this album Caracal?

We work with a lot of different vocalists and ended up writing about a wide array of completely unrelated subjects so there isn't one message that runs through every song. It isn't a concept album. For that reason we couldn't pick one title that would sum up everything on the record so we thought we'd just stick an art work on there which was amazing in its own right, and name the album after the art work.

A caracal is a cat, right?

It is. It's been my favourite animal since I was a little boy because they look so cool and no one seems to really know about them.

How has your sound evolved since your debut album, Settle?

It's not so much the actual sounds that we use that have changed because they are a quintessential part of what Disclosure is, but it's the context that we're putting them in. What has changed is the types of songs that we're writing.

A lot of this album isn't house music. We just wanted to experiment with some other genres because we weren't raised by house music and, although we love it, it's not where we're from. It's more influenced by R&B, soul and jazz.

Was it a natural decision for Sam Smith to be the featured artist on the single, Omen?

To be honest, Sam is the only person from the last record that we thought we might use on this one again, purely because he's such a good friend of ours. It would feel like a waste to not get him on board. We work with him all the time anyway and I'd say he's probably our favourite person to write with in the world. We got in the room for a catch-up, more than anything, and ended up writing about five songs.

Featuring on Latch helped to propel Sam from a relative unknown to a global superstar. Are there any new artists featuring on this album that you expect to head in a similar direction?

I'd like to hope that all of them are. There's no reason that someone like Kwabs couldn't be equally huge as Sam. He has such a beautiful soulful voice, and some great songs too.

How did you decide who to work with?

We have three criteria. They have to be good singers. They have to be able to write music, because when we work with someone we sit down around the piano with them and write a song from start to finish. We don't want to just finish the song ourselves and tell them to sing it, because we like them to feel what they're singing about and have a connection to the song. And they have to be nice.

It must be very interesting seeing each artist's songwriting process?

Absolutely. But more than anything it's been very educational. We wrote this whole album with Jimmy Napes who likes to come up with the title of the song before writing the actual song. He says it gives him a base of subject to work around and build on. I like that idea.

Lorde was definitely one of the more interesting ones to write with. She has such a clear idea of what she wants to do and that's why she's such a good artist, you know? She has such an identity with her music. She got involved in everything, even the production.

What is the biggest way in which the success of Settle changed your life?

It's allowed us to make music for a living. Before this, Guy was working in a clothes shop and I was at school. Now we're both professional musicians. And we've moved out of our parents' house and into London.

The success of Latch in America has also completely blown our minds. That song is nearly four-years-old now and it's still playing on the radio in America. It actually broke the world record for staying in the top 40 for the longest amount of time ever in US.

What's next?

The album comes out at the end of the month. We're doing a big American tour including Madison Square Garden. When we were growing up we used to watch a video of Led Zeppelin playing Madison Square Garden with our dad every weekend. After that we go on a world tour…all over again!

Caracal is released on 25 September on Island Records.