Half The Half Rabbits in actual fact. Colin met up with the stormy art rock group’s Michael Weatherburn (vocals/guitar) and Alice Watanabe (bass) in the convivial surroundings of the Far From the Madding Crowd and talked about their scary name, their new album and the merits of the toothsome Wiltshire brew, Cog.

CHM: For those that don’t know…the name of your band is a little..um…forbidding, a little grotesque….

MW: …sinister…

CHM: Did you choose it to describe your music or did it just pop into your head one day, apropos of nothing?

MW: Some people think it was inspired by Donnie Darko.

AW: We were really just stuck with it. Someone thought it up before we ever joined the band….

CHM: You guys have been going quite a while, right? What’s the secret to longevity? So many bands form and then break apart after the first setback or ruction.

AW: Of course some bands keep the same key players and just change their name every few years. But I guess we’ve all stayed harmonious.

MW: And it helps that we were friends before we joined the band. Three of us were at school together and so we all developed together as musicians.

CHM: Did the Half Rabbits go a bit quiet for a while? Recently I haven’t heard much about you.

MW: No, we’ve been busy writing loads of new songs!

AW: We’re careful not to play too much in Oxford, as we don’t want to get bored or bore people. Keep coming up with new material, keep playing to new people…keep it fresh.

CHM: From the point of view of newer bands: where are the good towns to play if they want a break from Oxford?

MW: London can be very good or very bad. We’re playing at 93 Feet East in Brick Lane, which is a brilliant place. People in Reading can be hard to please but if they like you they really like you. The Rising Sun Arts Centre is excellent. Also, the Oakford Social Club

CHM: That does music? It sounds like a bunch of workmen sitting around reading the Sun and drinking mild!

AW: Yeah, but “The Wheatsheaf” doesn’t exactly sound very muso-ish!

CHM: Fair point. Now, to the music…. Listening to the album, ‘From the Horizon to the Map’…it’s not a walk in the park, is it? …this is quite dark, hard-edged stuff. Even unrelenting…it seems very disciplined, very unified. Is it a concept album?

MW: Yes, I think so. I’m pleased you thought there was some continuity in it. We had a lot more songs, and we selected the ten songs we thought would make the most powerful album, rather than just choosing our individual favourites.

AW: Though I think the ones we chose are our best songs.

MW: The artwork is of this big city, and we were interested in how the biggest cities of the world feel at one and the same time very busy, very frantic, but also very lonely. So we were trying to capture the tension between this mass of humanity and the individuals who make it up.

CHM: So is there some heart-breaking falsetto piano ballad that will sell a million that you left off the record cos it didn’t fit into this scheme?

MW: Well, funny you should say that! There was an outtake that Tiger Mendoza got hold of and he layered up all these string parts and it sounds fantastic!

CHM: Where did you record the album?

MW: We did it in Abingdon with a producer called Mr G. He’s always been keen on us and knows how we work, so he made the recording process really easy for us.

CHM: How long did it take you? Again, it would be useful to less well-established bands to know what a realistic timescale is to make a full-length album.

AW: Something like five days, outside of mixing and mastering.

CHM: Gosh. That’s focussed work. By the way, why ‘From the Horizon to the Map?’

MW: I picked up this line in the context of the Second World War. It refers to The Blitz. Suddenly the war was right there in people’s lives, rather than on the news and overseas.

CHM: Like you said, sinister. One slightly muso-ish point. Michael, your voice is really distinctive: it’s unusually low for a rock singer. Most are in the tenor range whereas you are almost baritone-ish. Alice: do you and rest of the band have to alter your playing style to suit Michael’s vocal style?

AW: Well, we don’t know any different, really! We’ve never played with anybody else!

MW: I play a very bass-y Les Paul, and the sound is very bottom heavy, but Chris comes in and does his twinkly, clever stuff over the top, so it doesn’t get muddy.

CHM: Can we move briefly from your concept album to the concept of The Album? In these days of downloading, people cherry-picking their favourite singles, you obviously still believe a structured album still has a place.

AW: We’re happy for people to go onto iTunes and cherry-pick their favourites, but we hope that if people like one song from the album they’ll go to Amazon or whatever and download the whole thing.

MW: And not everyone likes downloading. People still buy CDs.

CHM: Too true, I still do mix tapes! So, now the record is done and out there, what are your plans to promote it? A tour?

MW: Yeah, we’ll do a tour. But in the short term, the plan is just to play a handful of headline shows near the album release date. The Oxford one is Saturday at the O2 Academy and then London and Reading.

CHM: What about the modern media? iTunes, Amazon?

AW: Yes that’s really important.

CHM: But how do you get your name to stand out? There’s masses of bands out there. Even good bands can get crowded out.

AW: I don’t really know. But we get a lot of people from overseas, people seem to find us. A lot of Germans seem to like us.

CHM: I love this! It’s like the Silent Film phenomenon. Over here they’re doing OK- but in Portugal- they’re massive! Any ideas why they’re keen on you there? No obvious German influences in the music…

MW: No, no idea, really.

AW: Maybe our music suits their climate.

CHM: And it is the country of Fritz Lang. He knew a thing or two about cities too.

The Half Rabbits headline the O2 Academy, Cowley Road, Oxford on Saturday 17 April.