West London trio White Lies, one of 2009's hottest tips, told us about their five favourite things that inspire and to a point, keep them sane, while on tour...

1. Go-karting
Harry: It's something you can do when you're on tour. There's a thing of getting into the habit of just going to a venue and playing a show and it can get repetitive and draining so go-karting kind of breaks the whole thing up.

2. Photography
Jack: I would say that photography is something that we've all really got into, particularly with touring as well. We've all started taking it quite seriously now because sometimes when you're going to all of these new places, the only way you can remember it is if you have a visible image. Literally the only way I remember a lot of last summer's American tour is by looking at pictures I've taken of some of the amazing places we visited. If you let those experiences pass you by it kind of sucks, so I think having a photograph of a time or place or event is like a lasting memory.

3. Foreign Languages
Charles: I think this could be more prominent in the future for us, but we are all really keen to learn several foreign languages so we can get by better in other countries and feel a little less alien. I think people would really appreciate it, as English people have this snobbish expectancy that everyone in every country should speak English.

4. British Comedy DVDs
Jack: We tend to pick up a new batch of these at the start of every tour. We seem to get through series after series of different comedies. At the moment we're in the middle of 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'.
Harry: Not just comedies though. I think British series in general...
Charles: I'd go as far as to say just comedies in general. I think we've watched more 'Southpark' than anything else ever.
Harry: Series 6 onwards. They're all quite amazing...
Charles: I think its Series 11 that has pretty much everything though, like 'Teacher Bangs Pupil'! Basically I think the latter era 'Southpark' is something we all really get into.
Jack: Its good to watch nonsense from time to time!

5. Gigsy, our tour manager
Charles: One thing we all collectively love is Gigsy, our tour manager. We'd be literally lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere without him.
Jack: He does everything. He's our driver, soundman, he techs everything, dad...! He's just so many things to so many people, and at the same time he's just one person.

White Lies are currently on tour until 20th December with Glasvegas. Full details can be found (Here).

Live image courtesy of Samantha Eva Willis