Does It Offend You, Yeah? were one of the unlikely success stories of 2008. Their album You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into was a bizarre mix of dreamy, ‘80s synth-ballads, savage electro beats and B-52s-esque instrumentals. It never really picked a style, or a genre, to settle on.

And yet, as the year came to an end, DIOYY ended up the ninth-most-listened-to band of the year on last.fm – in such elite company as Fleet Foxes, Santigold, Bon Iver and MGMT. It seems that if your whole album is like an iTunes playlist, leaping between genres (and even decades) from track to track, people will stay engaged.

With a new album on the way and Future Music Festival in full swing, ITM spoke to Dan Coop about touring curses, The Prodigy and how to engage with fans in the age of cyberspace.

Your new album is called Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You. Your first album was called You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into. Are you guys planning some kind of sentence-at-a-time story that’s going to develop over the course of your albums?
It’s more of a Choose Your Own Adventure book [laughs]. No, that came out of the first album. We had “you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into” written on the desk in the studio when we were recording the first one, because when we got signed it was such a strange experience.

We never thought that we’d ever do a gig, let alone get signed before we ever did a gig. And that was pretty strange in itself. So we wrote that on the desk just to remind ourselves that we had no idea where things were going to lead. It could have been massive, or the album might never have come out – we just had no idea.

And that was the theme of the album – we didn’t really know where to go musically, either, and of course we ended up with quite a schizophrenic album, and that little phrase fitted really well.

Have you stayed with the same varied approach to this album as well? Tackling every genre under the sun?
Well…the last album, as I said, was very schizophrenic. But this one’s more coherent. It’s kind of like there’s an electronic spine running through the whole thing. We kept saying that this album is designed to really put across the live show. So it’s quite heavy in places, but you’ve got softer tracks, and harder tracks – but they’re not totally different to each other, like they were on the first album, with Weird Science next to Dawn Of The Dead.

I played the first album to a couple of different people, and they couldn’t tell that it was all the same band. But this one you could play to someone, and they could see there are different styles of tracks on there, but it’s obviously all by the same band.

But it’s really hard for me. In the last interview, the guy said that it must be really hard to describe music to someone who hasn’t heard it. And it is – I’m not a guy who’s very good with words, to be honest, so it’s really hard for me to put across what it sounds like. But hopefully everyone likes it.

Everyone seemed to like the last one.
I don’t know why that is. I suppose we were quite a big internet band – that was our main audience. At one point we used to be very interactive with our fans, and were always posting up blogs, and videos, and messages to our fans – we had full control of our MySpace and that sort of thing, and didn’t give it over to the record label. So I think that had quite a lot to do with it.

And now you’re touring Australia for the third time…
Yeah! We did Parklife in 2008, then when we were halfway through our album we got offered a tour of Australia, and we thought it would be good to go out there, try some of the new stuff from the album and see what kind of reactions we were getting from the crowd. It was a good acid test for the new album, and that’s what we used it as.

And we were all really ill on that tour. James got some kind of swine flu, and finding it really hard to sing. And Chloe fainted at one of the gigs. It’s always been quite hard for us. At Parklife, James had a broken leg, and then these last shows there was a strange illness running through the band. But hopefully this time we’ll come out, and it’ll more of a walk in the park than the uphill struggles of the last two times.

And you’re playing sideshows with The Prodigy…
Well we’ve done a few shows with them. We did Portugal, Ireland and England, but this will be the first time we’ve toured with them for more than about four days. And obviously we’re massive fans, and have been since we were teenagers, so we’re all really excited.

I used to have a poster on my wall when I was 14, so to be touring with them now – it’s like a whole other world. It’s pretty crazy. And they all turned out to be really nice. I mean, we haven’t got a chance to spend all that much time with them, but just from quick chats, and saying hello in the dressing rooms. And I’m really looking forward to doing this whole thing with them.

There’s been a huge ‘80s revival in pop music, and your first album could certainly been thrown in with that. When you find yourself in the middle of a ‘scene’ like that, how do you manage to stand out?
Well, we were at the very crest of that wave – that album was in 2007/2008. And now you’ve got people like La Roux, and lots of other bands doing ‘80s tracks, and good luck to them. But I think we’ve all decided to leave that ‘80s stuff to rest. I mean, it’s still there – we’re all children of the ‘80s, so we’re always going to be influenced by tracks we grew up with. I think we’re going to be a little less kitsch with it this time though, and be a little more serious.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? continue the Future Music Festival tour this week, with a few sideshows supporting The Prodigy. For all things Future Music Festival, stay tuned to ITM’s festival page.

Wed Mar 3 – The Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Thu Mar 4 – Hisense Arena, Melbourne
Sat 6 Mar – Future Music Festival, Sydney
Sun 7 Mar – Future Music Festival, Melbourne
Mon 8 Mar – Future Music Festival, Adelaide
Thurs 11 Mar – Gold Coast Convention Centre