Since their 1980s heyday Echo & The Bunnymen have cemented themselves as the godfathers of modern alternative music without losing any of their undefinable mystique. As they prepare to reissue their first four albums – Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here, Porcupine and Ocean Rain – and embark on a celebratory tour of UK venues, we chat to Echo's Will Sergeant about nostalgia, popularity, and the lasting legacy of 'The Killing Moon.'

Over the course of your first four albums, you seemed to move gradually from spikey post-punk tunes into darker, more baroque territory. Was this a conscious progression?

It was what influenced us at the time. It was a bleak period in the UK – the Cold War, dole queues, possible nuclear war. Though we knew no different at the time, it is more than likely these were reasons I was drawn to the darker elements. I like the music to challenge; not exactly be discordant but to have a more sombre atmosphere. It always seemed more interesting to me than a jolly pop song.

Did life change for the band as your fame grew?

Life changed for me the day I started the band. Everything else just drifted in slowly like a fog off the river. Others around us changed and I almost felt apologetic for our rise at the time. Not having to go to work or sign on the dole was a major boon that I'm still grateful for. At its peak, I considered the band as pleasure, not work, or at least it was at the start.

Looking back at these four albums, are you nostalgic for the period?

Yes, writing my book (Bunnyman: A Memoir) has forced me to revisit days that are seldom visited in my mind. Memories have been flooding back in a wave of nostalgia. We had some brilliant times and I have been very lucky to have been on this ride and survived relatively unscathed, managing to never really take on the usual boring rock 'n' roll excesses. So dull.

'The Killing Moon' has become a cultural touchstone in the 40 years since its release. What are your memories of making that song?

I had recently bought a Vox twelve string guitar and that featured prominently in the mid-section. It was recorded with no amplifier and the body of the guitar was miked up with a couple of directional microphones, along with the studio technique of reverse reverb on the Autoharp that drifts into the chorus and the swirling dream vision it created. Also, Peter Hamill turned up to visit the producer David Lord and maybe he left some of his Van Der Graaf Generator dark juju behind.

Although there are elements of post-punk and other popular genres of the 80s in your music, each of the four albums feels distinct and separate from any scene. At what point do you think the band found its own unique identity?

The Bunnymen's identity had a wide scope from the beginning. It was created by the four of us, and we all indelibly stamped our personality on the sound of the records. Four minds coming from all different angles to create something that gelled into the Bunnymen sound, something that is so hard to define. That's what made us unique, there was no one person leading the way.

Out of the four albums, do you have a personal favourite?

I always used to say Heaven Up Here was my favourite, and the recording of it was an experimental time pushing the sound of the guitar to new limits. When I appeared on Tim Burgess' Twitter Listening Party, I had to listen to all four records for the first time in about 30 years. I was impressed with all of them and came away pleased that I'd had a part in creating what I always hoped would be seen as classics in the future. So, I can't really choose a favourite now.

You managed an album a year from 1981-1984. What was driving you to be so prolific?

It was kind of expected in those days to bring an album out every year. It wasn't always easy, with four people's input there were a lot of ideas, but we just got on with it. Sometimes we needed a track or two if we had gone into the studio without enough finished demos, and we sometimes made things up in the studio if we needed more songs. We soon came up with things, though, because everyone was full of creative energy back then.

The four albums of this reissue culminate with Ocean Rain, which is massive in scope with its 35-piece orchestra. Did this bigger canvas change the way you wrote songs?

We just did what we normally did. We were into Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, Love, David Bowie, and of course we would reference them subconsciously and that would filter into the music. Our producer Adam Peters would be upstairs listening to cassettes of what we were up to in the studio and would use motifs in the tracks and embellish them for the orchestra. It was quite hard to imagine that it would be so immense.

As you'll be embarking on a massive tour next year, has the way you play these songs live changed over the past four decades?

For me the playing is developing all the time, but we try and adhere to the original vibe of the songs. We spend a lot of time trying to recreate the sounds on the records as best we can. We have always had a few songs open for improvisation and these change all the time. It's part of what keeps the live shows interesting, the unpredictable nature of some of the songs in the set.

Reissues of Echo & The Bunnymen's first four albums will be released on Friday 22 October, and are available to pre-order now. Tickets for the band's 2022 tour are on sale now.