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In our first catch-up of the year, Dan tells us about the band's plans for 2012, his recent trips to Milan and LA, his new year's Hundred Sinners recreation and the singing advice he got from Macca. (Thanks to Dan for the pictures from the studio last week, too.)

Hi Dan, what are you up to today?
I’m going to have a meeting with the boys, up at Paul’s house in St Albans. And then back to London for a charity pub quiz for Centre Point this evening.

Are you good at pub quizzes?
No, I’m terrible at them. Completely appalling. I’m fairly well read, but terrible at remembering facts and figures.

Maybe you could take on an admin role for your team, and write down the answers.
I’d be bad at that as well. Perhaps I can just be there for morale.

Yes, a cheer leader! That could work.
Haha! “Come on guys, focus!” Yes, I can do that.

What are you chatting about at the band meeting?
Well, we haven’t all met up yet this year because Paul’s been on his travels around America with Sinead. They went on a massive road trip, all the way from Toronto, down to New York and then to Nashville.

Wow.
Yeah, it sounds like quite a trip. And they did some recording with Sinead in Nashville too. I think because they’ve got a baby on the way and they’d always wanted to do it, they thought they should do it now while they still could.

So you and the fellas will just be chatting about plans for this year?
Exactly. We’ve already started on the fourth album while Paul wasn’t here - just working on some song ideas and that sort of thing.

How was your Christmas?
It was lovely actually. Really nice. My mum came round to my house - the Dog House. So it was quite quiet, but really fun. And then new year’s happened and that was fairly crazy.

What did you do for that?
Well the idea was just that we’d go to a local pub, which is never too busy and we know all the staff. And then obviously by about 2am people were getting itchy feet, so we ended up going back to ours. But then not only our friends came back to ours, but half of the pub and lots of other people we know in the area who found out we were there. People like Nick Grimshaw and various other friends from over the years. So it ended up being a big party in the studio, which was nice - bit of karaoke, bit of playing along with the music. I went to bed at about half six. And then I think my housemate Anna ordered everyone out at about 7am. Which is good - because I was in no state to do that by then.

It sounds rather like a recreation of A Hundred Sinners.
Yes, it was a bit like that!

And have you been easing yourself into 2012 since then?
It’s been quite busy, actually. I went to Milan, to go to a Burberry men’s show over there, which was lovely. I had a really nice weekend doing a bit of press for them and enjoying the show. I sat next to Amir Khan who was telling me all about his rematch and everything. And then I came back from there for one night and went straight off to Los Angeles.

Ooh, what were you doing there?
Just visiting friends. Some friends of mine have a band called Chapel Club and they’re doing some recording in a residential studio out there. And another one of my friends, Lucy, is a film and TV producer who was out there working too and offered me a room to stay in. And my housemate Anna came out as well. And another friend called Callum who’s a short film maker. It just seemed like a nice opportunity to go out while lots of friends were out there. And I did a writing session with a guy who does a lot of writing for big American pop acts.

Did that go well?
It did, actually. I wrote quite a nice song with him. And even if it never comes to anything, it was all good experience and the more you write the more you get into the flow of writing, I think. So that was quite a nice thing to do. And we know Kelly Osbourne fairly well and her housemate was our kind of guide while we were there, which was great. She helped get us into all the clubs and that sort of thing.

Sounds like a fun trip. And a busy one too.
Yeah, it was both. By the end of it I was desperate to get home just to get on with the new album and get back to a kind of sanity. I love LA and it’s really fun, but it is a place that could easily make you go a bit mad, with all the partying and all the driving! You can’t even just walk somewhere! It makes it all feel a bit unreal. But it’s always good to get these experiences of the world. I’m planning a little trip to New York too soon, to see my friend Andrew Garfield in his new play there.

Right, onto readers’ questions. The first one is from Victor in Brazil who is the chap who sings Sewn in the shower on that video.
Ah, Victor!

He would like to know what you got for Christmas.
I got an iPad, which is really lovely and also very useful in the studio. It allows me to have a kind of remote control for my computer, so that when I’m playing at the piano, I can press pause and record and play without having to move. And I also got a lovely vintage easel from my mother, because I really want to do some painting this year. And I got a projector screen so I can do movies here at the house. I’ve got a big roof terrace which I’m gonna turn into an outdoor cinema in the summer.

Wow. Do you have good relations with your neighbours?!
Well, it’s Hackney. You just do what you do - and invite the neighbours round!

Lots of people would like to know if the band have dates coming up?
We have the charity Rock Ball thing in London on the 23rd of February. But I don’t think we’ll be doing any proper tours until the summer comes, when we will be doing some festivals. We’ll be mainly concentrating on making the next record until then. Although we are talking about setting up a load of webcams in the studio, so that we can give fans some little previews as we go along.

That sounds great.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that. I’m also working on a video podcast thing, which is coming together. So there’s quite a lot coming up.

Next question is from Ophelia who wonders whether your dog can do any tricks.
Yes, he can. He does quite a few actually. He’ll sit down and do a high five. He does spinning around. And he does rollovers. I shall have to make you a video. His other trick is doing secret poos in the studio. He’s very good at hiding them.

Maria would like to know how you like your tea. And what kind of buscuit you’d like with it.
Normal builders’ tea with milk and one small sugar, please. I like the Cadbury’s biscuits that are shaped like a wheel with really thick milk chocolate. Either them or a dark chocolate digestive.

Karen would like to know if there’s a venue you’ve never played at that you’d like to.
I’ve never played at the Roundhouse. We had it pencilled in for a show and then the routing didn’t work.

Oddly, Geoff’s question was actually to ask if your new year’s eve was like the Hundred Sinners video.
Was Geoff there? He may well have been. It was definitely like the video, only more so.

Michaela asks what exercises you do to warm up for shows?
I’ve tried lots of different ones, but I get very restless with them and try others. Often we just have a bit of a singsong back stage. That song We Can’t Dance from Join With Us actually came from warm-up singing. It was like a little call and response thing that we were doing. And sometimes I don’t even bother, I just go on stage.

You rebel.
Well, I spoke with Paul McCartney once about how he manages to be in his 60s and still have the falsetto and whether he has a regime. I remember he had a cocktail in his hand and he was just like, “No, if I want a high note, I just go ‘wooo!’” And that was it. He said he doesn’t think about it too much, he just sings. I was like, “You lucky bastard!” There is an element of not being stressed. The best state to sing in is definitely being relaxed.

Finally, Kay asks if you enjoyed the Christmas gigs?
I did. They really inspired us, those gigs. We did the Christmas gigs because the October tour had been so much fun, and then those shows were even better. They were great for us.

Let’s hope they become a tradition.
Yeah, I think we’re going to try and do them every year. They just felt like parties.