We booked nine days in a converted net loft on Shore Street and told ourselves we would leave with a record or not at all. Everything you hear was played together in one room, bleed and all: Callum's kit in the middle, Ama's amp behind a mattress, Jude on the harmonium that came with the building.

Most songs are first or second takes. Lanterns was the last thing we did on day two, at about one in the morning, and we never beat it. Gourock at Two is the only song with outside help — the Kelvin Quartet came in on the final afternoon and played the string part off a sheet Jude wrote on the back of a ferry timetable.

Why it took so long

We spent two years playing these songs on stage before we trusted them on tape. The record sounds like the room on the last night of a tour, which is exactly what we wanted.

Moira kept the windows open. You can hear the gulls on Paper Boats.