Getting signed by a major label is many bands’ dream. But for the crafters of one of last year’s best records, it proved something of a nightmare. Not just once, but twice. “We’ve proved you can take the money and fail, then crack on and do alright” they tell Spencer Bayles.

Cast your mind back to 2005. The Kaiser Chiefs were residing in the upper reaches of the charts, and all eyes were on Leeds to see what the city would give to the world next. While the likes of Forward Russia, iLiKETRAiNS and Napoleon IIIrd were setting critical tongues wagging (and would go on to experience success on varying levels), none of them had the pop crossover potential of Duels.

Fast forward to 2008, and after a rollercoaster ride, the band’s 2nd album ‘The Barbarians Move In’ has proved a sleeper hit and is widely regarded as one of the year’s best records. It is just the latest step in a long and fluctuating career, the story of which reads at times like a comprehensive list of dos and don’ts for bands everywhere.

The career trajectory goes like this: Duels’ form as SammyUSA around the turn of the millennium and a demo tape finds its way to Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio 1, which leads to a single being released on Fierce Panda, which alerts London’s A&R crowd, which leads to a bidding war between Sony and Universal.

Not a bad start, by any means.

“We played a gig upstairs at the Packhorse at 2pm in the afternoon for the head of Island,” recalls bassist/producer Jon Maher. “He didn’t really like us, but then he’d been in LA the day before meeting Beyonce.”

Despite this, SammyUSA signed to Universal/Island, in the same month the label also snapped up Keane and Busted.

“We were never going to be a priority for our A&R man” says Jon in hindsight, considering their erstwhile labelmates. “Musically we were all over the place, but we played powerful gigs, which is what the label tapped into. We’d project things behind us, and then for one song, we’d have people come on in masks to do a mantra.”

You don’t get that from Busted.

However, with an air of inevitability the communication issues started to creep in. “We didn’t discuss what it was we wanted and they didn’t tell us what it was they wanted” he explains. But when the label eventually did get round to putting across directional ideas, it seemed to display a worrying lack of appreciation for their charges ideals “It was suggested that if we wrote a ‘Yellow’, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

They were effectively told to disappear for six months, play no gigs, and hole up at Hall Place Studio to get ideas down on tape. However, this just resulted in the band taking their collective foot off the gas and losing the momentum that had been building. “They should’ve said ‘Go and gig for a year, hone your craft, and then see what kind of album you want to make’,” suggests the erudite bassist.

It wasn’t to be, and the dissatisfaction grew. “Once the novelty of being signed had worn off, we felt real frustration. We got to the point where we wanted to get out of it, and we’d seen other bands in similar situations, so knew there was life after the end of a deal. Our A&R man still believed in the band, but there wasn’t the support at the label. We were told we could stick around until we wrote a radio hit, or just draw a line under it.” They chose the latter. Duels was born at the end of the Island deal, new songs being kept from the label so they could start afresh.

“The saddest thing,” adds guitarist Jim Foulgar, “is that nothing was released – it doesn’t exist in any form you can play. It would’ve been a really unusual record.”

The band had an idea of what they wanted to be, and got back to basics by gigging, and embracing the instant response. “We had so much vigour; we were like a juggernaut,” recalls Jon.

They had no pop manifesto – all they knew was that they were comfortable with wanting to be liked. After a number of offers – Sony once again threw their hat in the ring – the band signed with the V2-funded Nude Records. The resulting album, ‘The Bright Lights And What I Should Have Learnt’ was a classic-sounding, Britpop-influenced pop record, full of big choruses and catchy riffs. A handful of strong singles were pulled from it, with Zane Lowe throwing his weight behind the likes of the punchy and paranoid ‘Pressure On You’.

Everything was building to the release of the album’s trump card, ‘Brothers & Sisters’. “It was the most immediate radio song on the album,” says Jon. “We’d had great press leading up to it, promo CDs were pressed… and then they pulled it.” Whether the single would’ve been the breakthrough hit remains a ‘what if’ moment for the band, but bad timing meant that it was around then V2 was winding down; there was no money left for either the single or to fund a tour. Shortly afterwards, Duels found themselves out of a deal.

Chalking it up to experience, ideas were already forming for the next move. “It was a beautiful time, when we started working on ‘The Barbarians Move In’,” recalls Jon. “We got rid our manager, and our publishing deal came to an end. It was just five of us and eight reels of tape.”

Recording in the monsoon summer of 2007, sessions had to be halted when the rainfall was too heavy. But aside from time-stamping the album’s genesis, the oppressive weather also adds to the overall anger and catharsis of its sound.

Lead singer and primary songwriter Jon Foulger brought in a set of songs that lyrically reflected a lot of the frustrations in the band, which were set to a musical backdrop which Jon M describes as at times “schizophrenic and tribal”. This is certainly accurate when listening to the goosebump-inducing first single, ‘Regeneration’, complete with James Kenosha’s powerhouse drumming and Katherine Botterill’s impassioned, haunting backing vocals. At times apocalyptic, elsewhere merely peering over the edge, the lyrics combine with the all-encompassing big production sound to paint vivid pictures of a society breaking down: “As we stand in line for our new homes / This new world built then boarded up / Tin pictures, hail Marys and crushing loans / Save what you can / We’re regenerating.”

Despite containing more memorable hooks than your average pop record, ‘The Barbarians Move In’ isn’t packed with obvious Top 40 hits. But that’s the point. As Maher states, “it just needed to exist as 11 songs on a record – an album rather than two singles and some other songs. There’s a certain reaction to the things we didn’t like about the first record, although the two albums aren’t as polarised as a lot of people think.”

Once the album was complete, a licensing deal was inked with This Is Fake DIY Records, who the band had long-term links with. Duels had initially intended to just digitally release it themselves, so jumped at the chance to release the CD on a label that wasn’t piling on any pressure. “There weren’t any expectations regarding sales. We were told there’s X amount of money to do what you like with, to make a video etc.”

There wasn’t much touring to support it, indeed just four gigs were played around the album’s release. “It’s just because of what the band is now, it’s not the same part of our lives”, says Maher. “Gigging is less of a priority, and it’s no one’s passion to be in a transit van driving up and down the country.”

So it wasn’t anything to do with not being able to do justice to the album’s immense sound in a live environment? “No, and the gigs we did were possibly some of our best ever; it felt visceral and for real.” Wider touring didn’t enter the equation. “After that, we said ‘let’s draw a line under it, and get on with album #3’.”

With ideas starting to form for the next record, are Duels still seeking the elusive ‘hit’? “There are very few records where someone has sat down and said ‘I’m going to write a hit,” suggests Jim. “If you try to, you’re probably going to fail. If you go and do what you want to do, you’re more likely to get what you want, on the terms you want.”

And given the band’s experiences, how important would they view ‘being signed’ in this day and age? “It needs to make business sense,” suggests Maher, “and it should affect you as a band as little as possible. Whatever’s being offered should only add to what’s already happening. It’s a start line rather than a finish line.”

“Getting signed is an achievement,” says Jim, “but if you’re good enough to get signed, you’re good enough to do it yourself. You see a lot less starry-eyed bands now because they know the mechanics of how it works. You need to be sure of what you’re doing, as there is no formula.”

But Duels’ experience is of course unique to them, as Maher sums up: “We’ve proved you can take the money and fail, then crack on and do alright. There’s no question the Kaisers did a big thing for the Leeds scene, but success can’t just be measured by who plays Elland Road.”

Spencer Bayles