"It was great. It was really, really good," bassist Russell Leetch said during a phone interview with LiveDaily just minutes after he and his bandmates had left Florida's Universal Studios amusement park. "That's why we had to reschedule our interviews. Otherwise, we'd be doing the interviews in a queue for the 'Men in Black' ride or something like that. We managed to do the whole of Universal Studios and every ride we wanted to do. We were there from 11 to 3. So we're thoroughly knackered now."

Editors, whose members met while studying music technology at an English university, have earned a reputation for their dark and dramatic music. Sometimes, Leetch said, the band is misrepresented, especially in connection with their latest album, "An End Has a Start," an effort that was recorded in Ireland at Grouse Lodge with knob-turner Garret "Jacknife" Lee and mixed at Olympic Studios by Cenzo Townshend.

"There are obviously some songs that are darker than others, but we're all positive guys and we have a good outlook on life," Leetch said. "The songs aren't a negative listen. It's not really total suffering or anything. I think we talk about more serious subject matters. That gets, um, misinterpreted for grim, if you like. I think we're a lot more optimistic than people make out."

During the early part of Editors' US theater tour, Leetch spoke to LiveDaily about covering The Cure, the hopeful side of their music and touring the United States.

LiveDaily: I think your cover of The Cure's "Lullaby" on the "Radio One: Established 1967" CD is excellent.

Russell Leetch: Thanks. We enjoyed doing it. We only really do covers when we're asked to do things, and usually things like that, basically. But, yeah, it was good.

Are you big Cure fans?

Yes, we are. They're one of the bands we appreciate from that era. I've got a lot of their records and we've got a lot of time for them. We do something along the lines of what they did: dark pop songs.

You have dark pop songs but they're always kind of hopeful.

Absolutely. We like a lot of contrast in our music, lights and shades. That's important to us. It keeps us more interesting.

Is it frustrating that you're sometimes interpreted as all doom and gloom?

Not really. It's just how people have written it in the past. It's not something that we can particularly change. And we are darker than, I don't know, Britney Spears? People say, "Are you going to write a happy song?" It's like, "We don't really like happy songs, to be honest." It's not the music I ever listen to.

Why did you decide to name your album "An End Has a Start"?

Originally, the song came first. Once we finished the album, we had a load of names. We bumbled about things, and that one stuck out the most and it kind of seemed to sum it up. We were like, "That's going to be it."

I've read that you guys consider this album to be more ambitious. Would you say that's accurate?

Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely more ambitious because we had three months in the studio rather than three weeks. So the songs have a lot more going on. People can listen to it over and over again and discover new sounds on there.

What kind of things were you able to experiment with this time around?

Every song's got a slightly different thing. ["Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors"] has a choir. And then "An End Has a Start" has got a mellotron on it. "The Weight of the World" has seven drum kits playing the same part for a big sound. Examples like that. When, you know, you got more time, you can record more things and you use the studio as a tool.

What was it like to record in Ireland?

Ireland's great. I've got a lot of time for Ireland. It's a brilliant country. It's fantastic.

What did your producer, Garret "Jacknife" Lee, bring to the table?

He likes to make big, sonic-sounding records. He likes to lay things up. He also taught us that we don't have to write a song how we've written them previously. We've always done it in a [rehearsal] room. This time, we were putting the songs together in the studio. So, we could try new things just in the studio.

Is it hard to write in the studio, under such a tight deadline?

We always have the initial song ideas before we go in. We never go in with just a blank wall. We always go in with certain ideas.

Have you started writing new material yet?

Not quite. It's in the cards. We're thinking about it and we're going to be looking forward to doing another record.

You've continually toured the United States. A lot of British and European bands have given up on the United States. What is the appeal, to you, of touring the United States?

It still feels like it's very new to us and people are still discovering us because we're a new band to a lot of people. This is such a big place. We're lucky enough to have the support from the record label to pay for us to come over here and play to people--and that's good.

Why do you think so many British bands have given up on the United States?

I think it's just because some bands play [larger venues in the United Kingdom]. We play arenas in the UK, you know, up to 12,000 people a night. And you come here and, for example, we're doing Nashville and I think there will be, like, 200 people there. To some people, that's a bit detracting, some bands can't handle going back and starting again. But for us it's just good, you know? We played Florida last night and it was a great gig. It was very enjoyable.

It must be kind of fun to go back and play clubs again.

It just kind of swings in roundabouts. We just don't mind. We still want to be doing this. Obviously, we've gotten bigger in certain areas. But that hasn't detracted us from just playing music.