The Wombats: '˜We're like a little family and time moves in its own kind of way'

The Wombats will be playing at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. as part of a short UK tour.

As The Wombats head to Leeds on their UK arena tour later this month, drummer Dan Haggis speaks to Duncan Seaman.

On the heels of their fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, indie rock band The Wombats venture out on a short UK tour this month that takes in some of the biggest venues they have ever headlined.

Their show in Yorkshire will be at the 13,000-capacity First Direct Arena in Leeds while in London they’re due to play at the SSE Arena, near Wembley Stadium.

“It’s going to be amazing, I can’t wait,” enthuses drummer Dan Haggis. “We got a little taster on that kind of size of things [in November] when we were in Australia, we played at this venue in Brisbane that was 8,500 in an actual amphitheatre, it was unbelievable.

“I think when there’s that many people in a room there’s an energy that’s created. Whilst smaller shows can be really intimate and high energy but something on a bigger scale like that is pretty awe-inspiring, so I’m really looking forward to Leeds. To be honest, it’s going to be the biggest ever venue we’ve played in Leeds by a country mile. No pressure!” he laughs.

Promotional duties for Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life have kept the band busy. Last July they toured the United States with two of their favourite bands, Pixies and Weezer, then went back to play their own headline shows for six weeks in October and November.

The July gigs were the first they had played as a support act since the early part of the last decade when Haggis and his bandmates Matthew Murphy and Tord Overland Knudson were fresh out of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.