Oceansize singer Mike Vennart is in a fragile state, and yet it's five in the afternoon. How so? "Well we did a gig in Southampton last night, and travelled back to Manchester afterwards, so I didn't get back until 7. I managed to sleep for a bit, then my phone rang at 9:30 and it was a Swiss guy wanting to do an interview, and I was talking at the speed of a slug, L I T E R A L L Y T A L K I N G L I K E T H I S" (sounds more like a Northern Mike Reid). "Then I suddenly realised and asked him if it was a radio interview, which it was!"

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No such problems for this one though - in fact Mike is quite enjoying kicking around the house alone, having recently moved into a home with his girlfriend. "She's away in Cambodia at the moment. I do like to spend a lot of time on my own, especially after being on tour, sometimes you don't wanna have to make the effort, you know?"

Mike spent plenty of time on his own while his choice of vocation revealed itself. "I grew up on a council estate in Castleford, the band are from round there. Did I always feel destined to do music? No, I just knew I was rubbish at everything else! I never thought of doing anything, but having studied music all my life, just to go out and do a regular job was pretty soul destroying." He speaks from experience when he says, "On the dole you have time to do the things you want to do, to nurture them, but it can get a little bit haunting, spending too much time with yourself. I'm laughing now though!"

Does this mean he writes more effectively alone? "I write a lot of lyrics and stuff. I'm currently trying to get to grips with music technology. I've just bought a laptop to get a bit more self-sufficient; I'm always reliant on the other four guys in the band to come up with something. I want us to keep the organic feel but want to know that I can stand on my own two feet. That's not to say I'm going to go solo or any shit like that!"

Oceansize come across as a prolific outfit, with two big-boned albums in two years, but Vennart is not so sure. "To me, prolific is someone like Biffy Clyro, who've got a hundred songs to choose from for their next album. The challenge for us is to keep the quality high. A lot of our music works from little scraps, little gems floating about, and these things take root. Maybe a tiny idea two years old will turn into a ten-minute record. It's about constant nurturing, and learning that you can't make yourself like something. On Everyone Into Position we tried a few things, overcooked a few tunes, and it was liberating to look back and realise that not everything we do is really fucking good, but at the end of the album we thought once or twice, 'that's terrible!'"

Vennart goes on to discuss the band's chemistry. "We're all quite different people and somehow we understand each other, it makes total sense. We're sort of blindly stabbing in the dark! I worry when we can categorise ourselves, that's when we'll really fuck it up. As a band we're quite unsettled, we keep puzzling ourselves, we like what we do but worry what the fuck to do next!"

At their Islington gig, Vennart dedicated You Can't Keep A Bad Man Down to "the greatest band that ever walked the earth." So.... Pink Floyd? "I'm so glad you asked me that question - it's a London band called The Cardiacs, who've been going for about thirty years and make music unlike anything I've ever heard. They're slightly comedic, very theatrical, and once you get past that there's a real soul. They're massively underrated, and totally ignored by the music press. They're the most indie loser band in the world, but I think they're so special, to become friends with them is so special." Fired up now, he adds, "When a member of that band pays you a compliment it's like a kiss from God. I think the fact they're obscure is a crying shame. Every new person I meet, I bore them about the Cardiacs!"

We go on to discuss the band's live persona, one of very much letting the music speak for itself. Mike's worried about his stage act though. "I think personally I'm worrying about this as if I'm Madonna! I come across and give the wrong impression on stage - some people think I don't care, but then meet me and realise I'm not an arrogant twat. To be fair on stage your mind is flitting between being overly confident one minute and then thinking, 'Who the fuck do you think you are?!' It's just the same with interviews, just recently I've been wanting to give them up, I know how pointless it is talking about our music as it speaks for itself!"

Vennart's family were at the Islington show. "It was a good night, really emotional. The whole family were there, the in-laws and everything. They don't like the same sort of stuff as me, they're really kind of different, they'd prefer to go and see something like We Will Rock You!" He describes the extra pressure a band feels in the capital. "Playing in London and Manchester gives me the absolute fear. There's something about it, I get nervous in a really angry kind of way, feel like I've got something big to prove. I can't do the "it's great to be back" stuff or anything like that though, I'm not gonna kiss arse!"

At which point it dawns that Mike has moved firmly into the emotional stage of his hangover. "I feel like I need to watch ET or something, you know?!" That means it's time to return him to the alca-seltzers...

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