KINESIS'S success has been growing steadily over the past year, gaining them acclaim from many quarters for their poetic, political punk-fuelled rock.

The Bolton band play the NME Brat Awards at London Astoria, followed by a UK tour date calling at Manchester Academy on Wednesday. Nicola Mostyn caught up with Kinesis guitarist Conor McGloin

So the tour started this weekend? (Feb8-9)

Well, it all starts today with the NME show at the Astoria in London, and then we'll be pretty much away for three and a half weeks playing every little toilet venue in the country.

This tour is the next big stage for Kinesis, isn't it?

Yeah, think because it is our first headline tour, that in itself takes it a step up

Are you excited?

It is a mixture of excitement and nerves 'cos there's always the chance that nobody's going to turn up. The ticket sales so far have been really good, though.

You've a new single coming out in March?

Yeah, it's called "And We Obey" which is concerned with NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the fact that American imperialism is beginning to oppress a lot of states around the country, which is backed up by Tony Blair.

A lot of your songs are politically inclined. What do you think about bands who don't use music as a forum?

I think that it is a separate entity to what we are doing. Coming from somewhere like we do, a northern town, to miss out politics, well, you'd be lying to yourself. I think anyone from small towns can relate to what we are talking about. But, you know there is absolutely nothing wrong with writing about personal subject matter. Jeff Buckley did it brilliantly. There are a lot of good bands that do that.

Who writes the lyrics?

Michael, Tom and myself write the lyrics. A lot of the time we aren't obsessed with politics but with cultural aspects like literature and film. I think we sort of devoured any inspiration we could. We want to make people question what they're doing rather than preaching at them and giving them a set of answers. We're trying to create a set of questions and they can find their own answers.

You've been quite vocal about the problem of growing up in a town. Do you think that sometimes the attitudes of a small town can fuel talent as well as suppress it?

Well, it's definitely something to react against, but then some people have cultural instincts but because they're not in a band they have no way of getting out there. In London there are astronomically high prices and it is so business centred, but so multicultural. Nobody looks twice at the Goth walking down the street, or the punk, everyone kind of fits in, where as in any town it is like you are different.

How is the debut album coming along?

We've just finished a couple of weeks in the studio. We've done nine songs out of the 12 or 13 that are going to be on it so we'll hopefully finish by the end of March, and then have it out by the summer.

Where do you see yourselves next?

We'd like to get a really good support tour again and then do the festivals. I think we're going to play reading and Leeds.

Have you got a fan base from Bolton?

Yeah, we seem to attract quite obsessive fans from all over. We did a Meet the Fans thing and someone came up from London just to see us. We get a lot of letters from people saying - well quite freaky letters. I've had people turn up at my door aswell. Luckily I wasn't in.

Do you think that's because you put a lot into your lyrics so people think they know you?

Yeah, I can completely appreciate it because I'm quite an obsessive person myself, I was always really obsessive with bands. It's strange, though. There was this girl at a gig in Sheffield who said she'd slit her wrists if I went, and I was like, I've got to go, you know, I don't like it in Sheffield. What can you do?

I suppose the more people that hear of you, the more likely it is you'll get those kind of reactions.

Yeah, well, I think people either completely love us or completely hate us, and that's how we'd rather have it, than have a lot of people who just think we're okay.