April 14, 2008 12:00

The Rascals name debut album – exclusive

Miles Kane gets ready to go back to his day job

The Rascals are set to call their debut album 'Rascalize', the band have exclusively told NME.COM.

The record, produced by Ben Hillier, will be released on June 9, preceded by new single 'Freakbeat Phantom' on June 2.

"The album is going to be called 'Rascalize'," confirmed drummer Greg Mighall. "Although I just told someone from another magazine it would be called 'Jagermeister', so hopefully I'll get a few free bottles! It's the name of the first track on the album too."

The title was thought up by frontman Miles Kane, who is also a member of The Last Shadow Puppets alongside Alex Turner.

"The song came from the word, Miles just said it once to someone and we all thought 'we should do a tune around that'," explained Mighall. "It was on the last day of recording so we just had enough time to record the tune. We came out of the end of it and it was just 'fucking hell', it was one of those and it's good having just a big massive tune. It's a big statement at the beginning of the album, it's a good start."

He added that the song has yet to get an official definition from the band: "It's just us, let's have it! You can be rascalized according to Miles, but it's not in the dictionary yet. We should campaign to get it in."

The drummer explained that their next single 'Freakbeat Phantom' will give people a good taster of the whole album.

"We've been thinking about what track to have for the next single quite a lot, and then the other day we just thought 'let's go with it' and changed our original plans. It's one of our favourite tunes live anyway already. It always goes down well so we just thought 'let's put it out'," he explained.

"It's quite a summer tune, so hopefully people will get into it at festivals, but it's also quite dark, I like that about it, it's quite a sinister tune. It's about a guy Miles and my brother met at a party and the song just grew from there into this monster.

"I think it's a good sign of what the album is like. If you're into that you'll be into the whole album I reckon, it's all in that kind of world. That was one of the reasons we picked it for the single as it represents that album well."

Mighall added that, with Kane currently promoting The Last Shadow Puppets's album, the trio were now raring to go again.

"We can't wait to get going again now with The Rascals," he declared. "It's been a couple of weeks off for me and Joe [Edwards, bass] while Miles has been doing The Last Shadow Puppets, but we're all ready for it now. All three of us can't wait to get started, we feel ready now. The album is done and it's mastered, we've got tours booked and so we just want to go out and do it properly, do the best gigs we can do and then tour all summer!"

The Rascals play the following UK tour:

Glasgow King Tut's (May 30)
Sheffield Leadmill (31)
Stoke Sugarmill (June 2)
Manchester Academy 3 (3)
Nottingham Rescue Rooms (4)
Birmingham Academy 2 (6)
Northampton Roadmender (7)
Liverpool Carling Academy 2 (9)
Bristol Thekla (10)
Oxford Zodiac (11)
London Dingwalls (12)

To check the availability of The Rascals tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/GIGS or call 0871 230 1094.