“WE'VE MADE THESE SONGS QUITE HARD TO PLAY LIVE!”

For the two guitarists in experimental post-punk band Squid, normal rules do not apply. As they put it: "We've never wanted to come across like we're doing things properly!"

- Stan Bull

Squid are one of the UK's most forward-thinking guitar groups, but when their guitar-playing multi-instrumentalist Louis Borlase talks about his earliest influences, a surprising name comes up. "I was obsessed with Bryan Adams for a while," Louis says. "In school I performed Run To You in front of the year group, which is probably my musical highlight to date."

TG's self-depreciation detector is sounding, but Louis' modesty is welcome nevertheless. In the last couple of years, he and his bandmates - fellow guitarist Anton Pearson, singer/ drummer Ollie Judge, keyboardist Arthur Leadbetter and bassist Laurie Nankivell - have made the ascension from niche club venues like Brixton's Windmill to outdoor festival stages such as Glastonbury. As Anton describes the band's early days: "Our first show was at The Verdict, a jazz venue in Brighton. We booked that show and then had to write music to fill the set. I don't think we would have felt comfortable doing that for a 'normal' gig venue."

This avant-garde approach clearly worked, as Squid's love of Talking Heads-style art rock, krautrock, ambient electronics, odd time signatures and brass instruments landed them on famed dance label Warp Records for their debut album Bright Green Field - not bad for a band who seemed to suffer from a tinge of imposter syndrome in their early days. As Louis recalls: "When we first started playing gigs, we'd be looking at other groups like, 'They look like a proper band. They're playing their instruments like a proper band'. But one thing that's been quite explicit is the fact that we've never really wanted to come across like we're doing things properly - to know what 'properly' would mean!" Speaking from the Warp Records HQ in London, Louis and Anton are discussing their expansive new album O Monolith, recorded in Peter Gabriel's serene Real World Studios in Wiltshire...