TWO thirds of Islands Lost At Sea made it to our interview, guitarist Bodge, they tell me gravely, is ill with a list of diseases too foul to print in a family newspaper. Oh, and rickets. Or stuck at work, whichever story you choose to believe.
If it's the former, let's hope he makes a quick recovery because the irreverent trio are set to play at this year's Wychwood festival, on a bill that has been likened to something of a "Northern invasion" of the Cheltenham weekender.
The band were offered the slot after playing "a gig above a grubby pub where they were playing Vanilla Ice downstairs."
Singer Dan Lever said: "It'll be a nice return to gigging. We haven't played live for ages because we've been so busy recording this album."
The album, which will be released on cult Manchester label Akoustic Anarkhy, has been something of a labour of love for the boys.
Bassist Adam Farmer said: "I thought it was just going to take a couple of months, but it's taken nearly a year.
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"We're doing it just for us now, really. Album sales nowadays are so poor and you're never going to get any radio play unless you're mainstream pop or indie."
Dan added: "It's taking ages because we've not wanted to just go with the accepted ways of recording things.
"We did one weekend when we were in for 14, 15 hours a day and none of us barely played anything. We just got all the best musicians in Bolton down to have a bit of a mess around - it sounds amazing.
"Jay Shep, in terms of taking a tune that we've been playing for a year and thought we knew and completely turning it upside down to come up with this mad jazz tune - he was amazing.
"We're sort of hoping we don't make any money from it now because then we'll have to pay them all..."
Included on the roster are Jay and his brother Ben, better known as the head honchos of the 20-something piece big band The Managers, Minions frontman Matt Leonard, Emily Cooke, Kev Bates, Bolton Acoustics' Eric Lever, and Adam's Badvibes cohort Si Sharp and his children and Adam's daughter Paige - "I'm really jealous actually," said Adam, "their song sounds brilliant."
"It's like, most of the new stuff we've been listening to is really stripped back, and we've just decided to chuck everything in," said Adam.
In the meantime, the band have been entertaining the commuters of Greater Manchester in their own inimitable style.
"We were coming back from Manchester on the train a couple of weeks ago and we had a kazoo," said Dan. "I played Barber's Adagio for Strings and Bodge played Shine On You Crazy Diamond. We got a round of applause when we got off!"
Michael Ainsworth, co-founder of The Doghouse who are running the upcoming bands stage at Wychwood said: "We all have different and wide tastes in music and Doghouse puts on anything from ska to low-fi to alt-country, folk, electronica, hip-hop and alternative rock, often mixing styles on the same bill.
"The line-up we have selected for the Wychwood stage reflects that approach with a distinctively Northern feel as all the acts are from there."
Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham Racecourse, May 30 to June 1. For more information about Islands Lost At Sea, visit www.myspace.com/islandslostatsea
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Kat Dibbits
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