In many ways the music industry is like a school playground, a furtive cesspit of name-calling, oneupmanship, and competitive jousting. This is particularly true of the UK indie scene where more than one band often vies for the same audience at the same time. Since 2007, the socially anchored, Coventry power rock trio led by lead singer and main songwriter Tom Clarke haven’t been afraid to shed a tonne of bravado as a shield for some deep-seeded insecurities – mainly Tom’s own personal hang-ups. Considering he called his band The Enemy, the frontman certainly knew how to make a few back in the late ’00s, and gave as good as he got. He’d make fun of The Horrors’ hair and find himself banned from being played on Alex Zane’s XFM rock show. Alex was an avid supporter of the band but Tom just couldn’t help himself. The circus surrounding these dramatic episodes resulted in The Enemy having their music overshadowed by meaningless tattle. It’s something that Tom today, speaking with hindsight from a carpark outside a studio where he’s putting the finishing touches on the band’s fourth record in less-than-glamorous Stockport, wants to bury deep in the past…

Over the course of The Enemy’s undoubtedly successful run during the best part of a decade, Tom has inevitably had to do some growing up. Alongside his band mates Andy Hopkins (bass) and Liam Watts (drums), he can boast a hat-trick of top-performing records with Number 1 album ‘We Live And Die In These Towns’, 2008’s Number 2 follow-up ‘Music For The People’ and 2012 release ‘Streets In The Sky’, which also went Top 10. A source of greater pride, however, its that today he emerges not just more mature, but with a charming sense of humility and open-mindedness. Hearing him talk freely and honestly about how much he loves “genius” James Blunt’s Twitter, or how excited he is by the likes of pop artist BORNS being played on Huw Stephens’ Radio 1 show, immediately throws off any misconceptions surrounding the tricky fella. He’s less guarded, more confident in his own skin, and therefore extremely good company. This new found clarity is something that’s made for a thrilling next musical chapter in The Enemy’s career. Still only in their mid-to-late 20s, and younger than the bands they emerged with – and outsold – they’re readying their most ambitious record, ‘It’s Automatic’, for release this October. “We’ve been working on it for a long time,” says Tom. “It’s a fucking great record. It was difficult to make but not in a bad way. To people who are still living in 2007 it’ll be a shock but to us it’s a natural progression.” The birth of the record came when the band were on tour in Scotland, and the evolved Tom was having a crisis of identity. “I sat Andy down and said, ‘Mate, I don’t wanna make another Enemy record. I’m bored. We’ve nailed what we do, I wanna go and do solo stuff and make music like the music I listen to.’ And he said, ‘So do I.’ So we decided to take a leap of faith together.” Tom warns that there’s a possibility people won’t get it. “But the songs are some of the best I’ve ever written, the production is brilliant and you have to put the fear behind you,” he says, with defiance.

It seems that in the eyes of their fanbase, The Enemy can’t possibly disappoint. They’ve toured non-stop and their crowds have provided a security blanket for the band even when they’re not making records. Last Christmas the trio sold out a UK tour having not released an album in three years. “We don’t want to piss the entire fanbase off but you kind of have to go, Fuck it! I remember thinking on the first record that I’d had 30 interviews to get a job before landing one at the Co-op, and now I was going to jack it in to go do music because someone told me there was a record deal on the table. It’s fucking terrifying. What if people don’t like this record and it kills the band? If it doesn’t pay off then at least we took the risk. I find it really exciting that we will get new fans with this album. People who might then go back and listen to ‘We Live And Die In These Towns’ and think it’s shit. That’s kinda exciting.” The band’s compulsion to challenge and reinvigorate themselves has made them far more ambitious with the parameters of their sound. One listen to future singles ‘It’s Automatic’, ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Everybody Needs Someone’ will leave you with a clear sense of The Enemy’s aspiration to pack out stadiums, never mind sell out the likes of Shepherds Bush Empire. Tom, however, insists that wasn’t the intention – some of the tracks here date as far back as the beginning. “Back when we were doing the first album we were making music within set lines. Now that’s all disappeared and the record is dictating its own direction. We’re just going for it,” he says. “We’ve had a geeky obsession with what other people are doing and where they’re pushing boundaries.”

Tom’s past experience leaves him far warier during today’s call of name-checking other bands at all, even those who have inspired ‘It’s Automatic’. After some prodding, he relents. “OK. The thing that triggered it for me was The Horrors latest album.” He laughs. “Someone said to me, ‘Look, I know how you feel about The Horrors… but you gotta listen to this.’ I put it on and went, ‘Fuck! This is brilliant.’ I was shocked they could transform their sound so amazingly. That was the match that started the fire.”

It may surprise The Enemy’s doubters to hear that Tom was lapping up the likes of electronic artist Kavinsky and the acoustic nuances of Death Cab For Cutie’s latest album. “We were borrowing production techniques from everyone who’s doing exciting things at the moment. Music that we would never have listened to. We’re older now, we get tired of listening to the same stuff. And I love pop! There’s no getting away from the fact that in 30 years time we’ll still all wanna sing to ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ by Cyndi Lauper because it’s genius.” The Enemy aren’t going fully A-ha, though. “It’s the Drive soundtrack with the drums from Phantogram, Cold War Kids’ bass sound but with a chorus written by me,” explains Tom. He attributes a lot of this inspiration to producer Gethin Pearson who force-fed him that Horrors’ album and the likes of New York shoegaze outfit Diiv.

Lyrically, Tom’s outgrown social commentary and the political ramblings of the past, despite his recent Facebook outbursts lamenting the lack of decent socialist voices on the UK’s band scene. They were at their most political when coming-of-age, but Tom is happy to leave that all to some new young torchbearer now. “Nah, I’ve had quite a few relationships now and all of them have gone wrong in one way or another!” he chuckles, revealing that ‘It’s Automatic’ is potentially his most personal record yet. “The most effective way for me to deal with a fallout or a bit of emotional excitement is to make songs. The songs on this record are about having a fucking amazing feeling, driving a convertible down a highway in LA. Do you know what I mean? That’s something I couldn’t have written before because I’d never had that experience.”

Tom’s refreshing lack of front has allowed him to open up in the most endearing way. He’s laid himself bare to the public in the past year, most impressively via a brave and lucidly written column for trade paper Music Week last September about his own personal struggles with depression and mental illness, which he’s suffered from since he was 16. “At many times during my adulthood I’ve battled with the overwhelming urge to take my own life,” he wrote, while explicitly discussing the tirade of abuse he’s been subjected to by the music industry throughout his 20s, largely due to his appearance. He mentions how Time Out called him a “Gnome” and a “Hobbit”, among other things. He also spoke about the goading he’d experience as a young lad in a breakthrough band, encouraged to talk down about his peers, relegating himself to a pawn fuelling the soap opera of the likes of the NME. Today he sounds apologetic (“Anyone who’s ever been on the receiving end of anything I’ve said that was out of order, I’d like to make amends with…”) and ready to put all that in the past. He reveals how making music for him is a necessity but it can be extremely hard and the temptation to give up is there. “I think I’ve been a nightmare to be in a band with at times,” he says, jovially. “I don’t think I’m the easiest person to work with. Andy in particular is involved in the writing and has been extremely patient with me. They both have. I owe them a lot. Sometimes you’re in a dark place and you can’t write a fucking chorus. When you deal with depression on a daily basis, it’s not that you struggle to get up to do one thing, it’s that you struggle to get up. It wouldn’t matter if I wrote music or I was a lawyer, depression just fucks you. You forget what you’re good at, you feel like you can’t do anything. In music it’s particularly vicious. It’s a weird old industry.”

So what is it about music that still has a hold over Tom? “I don’t get the same buzz out of anything else. That feeling… There’s a video on my phone that’s kept me going during times when I would have otherwise given up. We played T In The Park and the crowd were singing our song back to us. That feeling when you’ve just had sex and the world feels amazing and you couldn’t give a shit and all the problems that were massive a minute ago no longer are. It’s that feeling, times an absolute billion.” I wonder if the media’s reassessment of The Enemy matters to him, when it seems that some of Tom’s contemporaries – Kasabian, The Vaccines etc – will grace the pages of the music press regardless of their output? “Not any more,” he says, convincingly. “I used to really, really give a shit what the music press wrote about us. I’d open a magazine and if it wasn’t us in there I’d be like, Oh why? I’d like people to say ‘It’s Automatic’ is good when we release it and for radio to play it. Equally I live in the real world. Just cos I like it doesn’t mean everyone else will. This album isn’t about proving anything.” Perhaps the fact Tom is ready to forgive and forget means that karma will operate in his favour too.

On a personal front, The Enemy appear to have achieved what they set out to do. “We’ve made an album we’re ridiculously proud of,” says Tom. “We’ve pushed ourselves, we’ve not played it safe, we’ve progressed as musicians. It’s fucking awesome and if nobody else ever plays it then at least we’re happy.” That said, there are milestones in his sights. “We have the songs and production to headline festivals,” he says. “I’m not gonna play it cool and say we’re not that fussed about doing that. We really are. We give a shit about that. We just give a shit, full stop.”