SKY-reaching highs followed by nose-diving lows are the turbulent forces which have piloted Beatglider’s musical journey to date.

The Southend band are currently soaring again, with a new album Witches, released by Enraptured Records.

They are receiving rave reviews which are helping cure the splitting travel headache brought on by a previous flight path across the globe.

Five years ago, existing members of the band – Lee Hall and Matt Randall, vocals and guitars, Paul Stride-Noble, on drums, and keyboard player Adam Radmall – jetted out to Los Angeles to make an album at the all-expenses-paid invitation of Lakota Records, part of big-boys Sony.

The wide-eyed youngsters spent six weeks in Hollywood, treading the glamour and glitz sidewalks and recording Dreaming of Roads – a floating collection of sleepy dreampop perfection. Shame you’ve never heard it then!

“The whole experience was really frustrating,” says Lee, 31, from Westcliff.

“Lakota were so keen to get us signed and did all the running. They heard our first album, 40 Days of Summer, offered us a long-term deal and flew the band out to LA.

“But when we got home, they just went cold and quiet. They put out a single, We’ve Gotta Coast, but the album never saw the light of day, which was so weird after all the expense they had gone to.

“It must have cost them £100,000 to make the album. We also got £6,000 each for signing – it was meant to be a six-album deal – and everyone received £2,000 worth of musical equipment to keep.

“The whole thing just didn’t make sense.

“We kept calling them and sending e-mails, but they just didn’t get back to us and it all got really depressing, following the previous high of LA.

“When we got back our people were involved with an Irish band, the Thrills. They were a lot more commercial than us and I think they decided to throw everything in with them and take a loss on us. It did my head in.”

But Lee refuses to write off the trip to LA as a complete waste of time. “It was a great experience and we recorded a really good album, which is something I will never forget,” he adds.

“The producer was a guy called Tom Rothrock, who has made albums with Beck and Badly Drawn Boy, and we recorded the first part of the album at a studio in his house.

“It was all very surreal. He lived up high in the Hollywood hills. We completed the album at Sound City, where Nirvana recorded Nevermind. The whole process was mind-blowing!

“LA is an amazing place, very big, very intimidating. We did all the touristy things, like walks along Sunset Boulevard and a trip to the Viper Room!

“After the trip, Lakota’s lack of action when we got home drove me to depression. When you get flown to LA, you think this is it, we’re going to make loads of albums, all the hard work has finally paid off.

“Maybe we should have hassled them more, or fought a bit harder. But we are a very laid back bunch of blokes and that’s not our style.

“There’s definitely a sense of unfinished business and we want to get Dreaming of Roads released next year.

“We’re looking into the legalities surrounding the music ownership and hopefully we’ll be able to share our lost bit of Californian sunshine soon.”

The fallout from being dumped saw band members take refuge in their own inner shelters for the best part of a year, before Lee and fellow singer-song writer Matt emerged from self-imposed hibernation to start beating their creative wings again.

Comparisons with early Nineties indie fringes, Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Spiritualized, are inevitable. One of the new album tracks, Lights on the Water, conjures up a gently bobbing wave of ghostly vocals and soft mesmerising guitars.

“Witches offers a few dreamy epics, something chilled out and a couple of poppy tunes too,” explains Lee. “It has definitely been influenced by the anti-climax of LA. It’s much darker and downbeat, but still more flexible than anything we have attempted before.

“The reaction so far has been great. People seem to like it and that’s what is really important to us. It might be a cliche, but making money really isn’t important for Beatglider. We just like to write and record good songs.”

Beatglider, with new bass player Staff Glover, hope to play a home-town gig at Southend’s Royal Hotel soon, but you can catch them supporting indie veterans, the Wedding Present, at Colchester Arts Centre on Tuesday, December 2.

For more information, visit www.beatglider.co.uk