Belle And Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch has said he is pleased his band have so many fans in the US, but that they have always struggled to fit in.

The frontman of the Scottish band said that he didn’t like to question their success across the pond too much, but was grateful for it.

He explained: “We’re more relieved than surprised, to be honest. But we’ve been at this a while. We had various stages of surprise when we were a fledgling band, so now we’ve just tried to keep the quality up so they’ll keep having us back over there.”

Stuart Murdoch at Coachella 2015
Stuart Murdoch (Rich Fury/AP)

Stuart continued: “We feel like odd ones out everywhere. We’re not American, so we have that when we’re over there, but in the UK, we were never Britpop or anything, so we didn’t fit in with that and those bands that started when we did.

“We’re this indie, Eighties-influenced band that’s outgrown its roots. That’s fine, I think there are plenty of great bands in that position.”

Stuart set up Belle And Sebastian after being struck down with ME while at university and said he had picked up other musicians along the way to join him.

Belle and Sebastian Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance
Belle And Sebastian’s new album Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance (Metador Records)

He said: “It took a long time to feel like the band was going to be a career. I was in very different circumstances in 1994, before the group got together. I was past the age I thought I would be a pop star or in a band, it felt more like I was writing my own obituary, really.

“I didn’t think it would stretch out past an LP and a couple of singles. I think it was when we got to album five that things settled down; we got a crew together and playing live got more comfortable, and we had a solid line-up.”

Belle And Sebastian’s ninth album Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance is out now. They begin a UK tour on May 3. For dates and locations, visit www.belleandsebastian.com.