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Hi Johnny. How are you today?

"Great. We're just kicking a ball around in the park as the weather's lovely. We're in Glasgow as we have a gig here tonight."

What can we expect from the gig?

"A lot of instrument swopping and just lots of fun. We do some great live songs and it's just something really different. Our shows have a lovely vibe and there's some songs that everyone dances to, some where everyone's sat down chilled and others when people are just talking. They're always really different. Anything can happen."

Is Winchester a special gig for you as you lived locally and went to college there?

"All the shows with a link are special, but particularly Winchester and especially the Railway as I went to so many gigs there when I was growing up. We lived just outside Winchester for about 11 or 12 years and I went to school there and stuff. I went back to college there too and have spent a lot of time there, mainly going to gigs!"

Have you ever played the Railway before?

"No, never actually. We played the arts school last year which was great as lots of friends from when I was growing up were there. I'm really looking forward to this one."

What have been your best and worst gig experiences?

"We've been fairly lucky with having bands play alongside us that sound fairly different to us and it makes for an interesting evening! We've had some pretty fun gig experiences, but there's been a few bad. We had a cello blow up once! Joe the cello player had to actually leave the stage and we had to do the rest of the gig without him. We once had some trouble as well. We went out in Leeds after a gig, we were just messing about and having fun and somebody started attacking Matt the drummer. He was just punching him and we ended up being kind of heroes in Leeds that night and everyone was buying us drinks! It went from being horrible to really funny. The guy who punched Matt ended up apologising too. We feel now that we could be fight sharks, a bit like pool sharks, that would be a real talent!"

What's on your rider?

"We did have a ridiculous rider because we used to have a tour manager who didn't ask us what we wanted so we used to end up with six old world wines, three new world wines and hummus! But our manager now just gets us beer and Berocca!

What's making you happy at the moment?

"Summer is making me really happy, ridiculously happy!"

What's making you cross?

"The fact that I can't seem to give up smoking. I thought it would be pretty easy but it's not when you have a life where you go from nothing to long periods of work with obvious five or ten-minute breaks. It just makes sense to go for a cigarette especially when lots of people around you are, but I really don't want to."

What are you listening to at the moment?

"African music. I've downloaded some stuff from the Internet from the 50s and 60s which is great. We've had some really good bands support us as well like Slow Club, Mumford and Sons, Peggy Sue and the Pirates and Melodica, The Melody and Me."

What's your burning ambition?

"Just to stay true to ourselves really, which I know we will as there's no one to upset the balance of the band. Obviously I'd like our album to be successful, but I'm really proud of it and had a lot of fun making it, so that's the main thing."

n Johnny plays The Railway in Winchester on Tuesday. Tickets and details from railwaylive.co.uk

3:39pm Friday 9th May 2008

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