When I speak to Adam Montgomery, bassist/vocalist for Melbourne punk-inspired rockers CALLING ALL CARS, it's late on a Saturday afternoon and he's just finished an all-ages afternoon show in the suburbs of Melbourne. The group is in the early stages of a 30-date tour of southeast Australia with After the Fall, in support of their new single Hold, Hold, Fire, which will also bring them through Canberra for the Trackside Festival in late November. Even though this is in addition to the two national tours they've polished off already this year with Butterfly Effect and Cog, Montgomery is surprisingly eager to get back on the road again. "I think, if anything, we're enjoying touring even more than we were at the beginning of the year," he says. "We'll have done over 100 shows for the year by the time we finish. But we're on our own tour now, and it's great to play the smaller clubs, get closer to the crowds and get a bit sweatier."

After the release of two EPs, the group has spent the small gaps in touring in the past year to record their debut LP with Shihad's Tom Larkin in the producing role. "He's great. Coming from a group like Shihad, you can imagine how much experience he's got. They've made every mistake and every right move you can think of. We're a very young band, so he's absolutely invaluable. But he's a hard-arse in the studio. It's gotta be perfect, or he won't accept it." But having to write songs or arrangements on the road and spend their precious non-touring time in the studio with months between recording sessions does still have its advantages, Montgomery suggests. "It's not ideal - I'd certainly like to do the recording in one lot. But the good thing is that we constantly have fresh ears for our music - we have the luxury of coming back months later and listening and changing things."