Ted Dwane

We have big limitations by not having a drummer. It instantly informs a lot of our musical decisions when it comes to writing. What we end up coming out with is not very cerebral music.

I don't know many artists who've managed to go a career without bringing these things up. Saying the word 'God,' 'Jesus' - it happens in a million rock songs.

As humans, we're such a discontented species. We're always trying to further ourselves, and you get all the way to the moon, and then it's just discontent. You want to go to Mars.

You can't just repeat. It's valueless. So we - we're really keen to challenge ourselves. I suppose a byproduct of that will be challenging our fans a bit as well.

We're not the first band who went to public school.

None of us had really any interest in doing a sort of 'Babel 2.'

I think it's a great story, the story of Babel. I think anyone can direct it as an analogy for a lot of different situations.

Without a drummer, you've got that sort of running, chicken-chasing, rhythmic thing happening with the banjo in the top end - it's what gives our music a lot of its momentum, a lot of its energy.

Being a bass player in a band without a drummer for seven, eight years has been kind of weird.

It's impossible to tell how you're perceived. I think it's important not to think about it too much, because it really means nothing. Some people think we're a rock band, and that's ridiculous, and the idea of us being a folk band - you sit in a pub in Ireland and hear those guys play, and you're like, 'Yeah, we're definitely not a folk band.'

We were thrilled when we were nominated for best new artist at the Grammys, but we were even more so when they asked us to play live.

We've always imagined ourselves as a rock band. We've always been a rock band playing the wrong instruments.