Well not quite all of them. Brian Briggs, Jon Ouin and Rob Steadman met Colin in the Rusty Bicycle for a pint and a chat about the band’s phenomenal twelve months, and their plans for the future.

CHM: Well, first of all: congratulations. You’ve had a marvellous twelve months, with multiple Glastonbury appearances, performing on Jools Holland’s show, and seeming to be a permanent fixture on the ‘Ones to Watch 2010’ in the national press. One label I saw: “Bloke-Folk”. What do you think of that?

BB: Disgusting.

JO: Slightly pejorative, I think.

CHM: Yeah, sounds like a bunch of guys playing dulcimers but drinking Stella. I can assure the viewers of the website that everyone here is drinking Arkell’s Kingsdown.

BB: Actually, all these pints are different.

CHM: Bollocks. There goes my credibility as a real ale critic.

BB: But, to prove we’re not “blokes”: we were up in Glasgow supporting Guillemots and got into a conversation with a local; we were looking for a place to get a beer or something and they asked where we were from. And when we told him, he just said: “Ye posh c***ts.”

CHM: Yeah, but Winnebago Deal get the same thing, and they’re a couple of sweaty lads playing balls-out rock. Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the early days, and the mindset needed for a good band to make progress. Biffy Clyro have this philosophy: “No gig too small”. Does that chime with you?

BB: Actually, our smallest gig turned out to be our most important. For a while we would play anywhere someone offered us a gig, and at one point we played eight gigs in two weeks. Towards the end, the audiences were wearing thin, and by the seventh one, the only people in the audience were a couple of mates…and Tim Bearder from BBC Oxford. And his support from then on really helped get us somewhere.

CHM: How did that work?

BB: Tim put us forward for Radio One’s Big Weekend and the connections we made from that event indirectly helped us make it onto Glastonbury, Jools, etc. And another thing I’d say is: we were never too desperate to get signed or get management or whatever. We played the gigs because we loved playing gigs and all the good things that happened subsequently happened naturally.

CHM: How did you get your management team in place?

BB: We met Jon Chapman, our manager just over a year ago. Once he was on board, he gradually invited people he trusted to come and see us at gigs, and so this team came together slowly and organically- someone to do PR, someone to do bookings, someone to push our material onto radio….

CHM: Any bodyguards? To duff up the paparazzi or awkward journos….

BB: Yeah, he’s sitting round the corner from us, right now. But again, I’m sort of glad we didn’t get management too early. There’s always the thought that if we turn up in London and play gigs in front of industry people before we’re really good and ready, we might blow our chance.

CHM: One thing about Stornoway. You’re all extremely well-educated, and could presumably earn big bucks on the back of your B.A.s and D. Phils. Was it a bit of an agony when you had to decide whether or not to give up your day jobs?

RS: Ollie, my brother, has a few months of his chemistry degree left, but other than that we’re free and clear. Brian and Jon have left their jobs now.

BB: The two other musicians, my brother Adam and our violinist Rahul have both been very sure about their careers, and there was a time when we had to decide who was in the band full time.

CHM: That must have been a heartache.

BB: Yeah, Rahul’s doing his Ph.D. and my brother’s a doctor, so they are serious things to give up. But they join us for live gigs and it’s working well.

CHM: The Stornoway of now seems a bit different from the Stornoway of a few years back. You’ve always been famous for these wonderful folk ballads, but you enjoyed the more carnivalesque, cockabout side too. Frank Zappa once asked Does Humour Belong in Music? What’s your answer?

BB: It does belong in music, but it doesn’t belong on our debut album.

JO: Yeah, we eventually realised we were shit at comedy songs.

CHM: So, no more trumpet solos played by a bloke wearing a horse’s head.

JO: Maybe on the odd B-side.

BB: Yes, there was input from the manager that continuing with those songs would be confusing on the album, and we all agree now it was the right decision to focus on what we were best at.

CHM: Where was the album recorded?

BB: Mostly in our living rooms!

CHM: Bloody hell. Very Arcade Fire.

BB: We did do a couple of tracks in London at Miloco studios, but we found that people overall really liked the bedroom-ness of the early recordings, and we lost the intimacy when we tried to re-record them.

CHM: In stark contrast, you did a historic gig at the Sheldonian a few months back, with full orchestra. This is what I love about your band: you seem so modest, but then you pull these audacious coups de theatre. In this case, literally. How on earth did you get permission?

JO: That was Rahul-he’s first violin in one of the university orchestras, and he made out that we were a really, really soft folk band.

RS: Absolutely no drums.

CHM: You smuggled ‘em in under the laundry or summat?

BB: I feel sorry for the staff: they must have had the most stressful day of their lives. Still, it’s done now.

CHM: The reviewers that were there were blown away by the performance.

BB: We loved it too. By the way, anyone who pre-orders the album will get a couple of tracks from that show.

CHM: Finally, I notice from your tour itinerary, that you will finally get to Stornoway! Just make sure you don’t gig on the Sunday.

BB: Oh, good point. As we’ve taken their name, I think the islanders are going to have quite high expectations. We’ll let you know if we’re welcomed with open arms or tomatoes.

Stornoway’s debut album, ‘Beachcomber’s Windowsill’, is released on May 24 on 4AD.