Have you seen her there yet?

T: She didn't. I'm not holding it against her.

C: She might have been there at the back. There were loads of people there. Hmm. Yeah.

You've played with Kate Nash too haven't you? What was she like?

U: We did just a one off show at the Astoria. She was lovely.

MTV are calling you 'the hot young folk group.' What do you make of that?

C: Are they? Well I mean everyone has their own definitions of those words. 'Hot' for one.

T: Well we are younger than other people I suppose.

C: urby is waiting for a phone call from the Queen any day now.

U: It's all relative.

C: It's definitely a compliment.

U: They say folk group and wipe all the punk aspect out.

I've heard a lot of words mentioned about you like 'sweet' and 'twee'.

All: No, no, no..

T: You've definitely been misinformed. It's words like death and..

U: Blood. Gore.

C: Al Gore.

One reviewer said you are the kind of boys you would want to take home to meet your mum.

U: I've got a lot of ex-girlfriends who would say that is truly not the case. And many that would say the opposite.

OK, moving on then! What's your name all about? Who's idea was it?

C: We found it in a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant and it said Noah and the Whale.

U: It's weird, we were thinking 'what are we going to call the band' and we got a fortune cookie, each of us.

T: One said 'Noah', one said 'And', one said 'The', one said 'Whale'.

That's just made up again isn't it?

C: No... we were 'Whale and the Noah'. Or 'The Whale and Noah'.

U: Mine just said 'the'.

Have you got any interesting fan mail?

C: There's one amazing, amazing girl in Manchester. Everytime we go and play she draws us a drawing. All sorts, crayon, cut out paper and stuff.

U: The last one was very clever.

T: She made two actually. Double sided.

C: We get some bracelets, jewellery. In future, if you are going to give us stuff make it crisps and sweets. Not that we're fussy.

Any in particular?

C: Twiglets. Definitely twiglets. We're joking though. It really is incredibly heartwarming to get that kind of stuff.

So what has got you talking today then?

C: What all day?

U: I'm getting a new bass tomorrow but that's probably the dullest thing to anyone else other than me.

C: I'm getting a new face tomorrow. I'm getting Nick Cage's face. I was talking about moving to Sheffield.

T: Or Wales.

C: Or Leeds.

T: Charlie's emigrating North. Somewhere North. We're all quite excited about it.

How would you sum up this year so far?

C: Hilarious. It's been brilliant.

U: Pukka.

C: No it wouldn't be pukka. Twiglet? It's been amazing.

Noah and the Whale 'Shape of My Heart' is released 5th May

Tara Hounslea