Danny: I think we do fit in to today's musical climate because in an environment where a lot of people seem to be losing their heads (and their jobs!), we're just ploughing ahead with stuff we really like, putting our love and care and attention into all the details that add up to an affectionate vibe. I think being different makes us fit in, so to speak, because the climate seems like a socket we can plug.

Danny: I'd say the album is similar in the way it shifts pace a lot, but it's different again in being much more positive and ambitious. Fey fans of the EP must prepare be horrified by the rock monsters (like Silver Planet, Bees and Stormtrooper).

Will eclecticism limit our fanbase? Maybe. Maybe it'll broaden it.

Andy: As we get more stuff out, people will hopefully see the common threads

Danny: We just do what we want because we get a kick out of it, and despite signing a big deal and working on a very expensive album right now, the money people aren't remotely interfering with us. Everyone seems to think what we're doing will be commercially big over the next couple of years, so they're leaving us to it. We're designing our own sleeves, writing our own video scripts, doing our own website and choosing our own singles, and they're encouraging us to carry on doing so. The fools! Don't they realise yet that we don't know what the fuck we're doing?

Danny: Honeydew is all about my childhood love for Watership Down, though it's a bit of a metaphor for the way that some people don't care about other people in emotional trouble, and are only concerned with how that affects them ('we can't carry invalids'). Also, it's an experiment in creating emotional textures with the piano. Imagine Ooberman soundtracks on feature films. You never know.

Me (Danny): Joey out of friends
Andy: Dustin Hoffman
Alan: Dec out of Ant and Dec
Sophia: Robert De Niro
Steve: Ted Rodgers

Danny: It happened after a big punch-up between me and Graham Coxon. Only joking. No, we only signed as a one-off single deal, that's what we got and there was no question of further releases. We had dinner with Graham in Camden. He's so tall. I had no idea, but Blur are all well over 6ft.

Danny: How big do we want to be? Not as big as Blur (we're all under 5'8).

We've been enjoying every small increment in our size - getting management, a single deal, meeting Graham, getting publishing, a major deal, coming off the dole, releasing Shorley Wall with all its achievements (Mark and Lard's 7th favourite song of 1998, John Peel's 27th, Single of the Week in Melody Maker and on Jo Whiley's Radio One show, number two in the indie charts, ten thousand copies sold, Times Single of The Year, - though the highest achievement was of course that single of the week and 10/10 from HeadCleaner (natch - HeadCleaner). Then there's been the fun of wasting my advance on toys (laptop, recording gear, N64) and holidays, and now finally recording the album. Phew. What a year.

Me and Andy dubbed 1998 the year of the endless party - we always seemed to be pissed on someone else's expense account, out to lunch with one label after another, bemused by A&R scouts full of incredible flattery who only a few months before had turned us down.

Where's it all going? Nobody knows how big it will get or how big we want it to be. Underneath all our polite charm there's an ambitious streak. We'd love to do extreme stadium gigs - on the other hand we're not really after the fame or money. It's much more the kick of going out there on a huge adventure just to see where the trail leads.

You asked about principles. I don't think we have any, apart from the commitment to care deeply about all the little bits that make up an Ooberman record.

Danny: As for the current pop music, I'm not arsed either way about it. Steps are alright for what they are, but I wouldn't buy it. We've been watching a lot of shite on MTV in the studio (probably because it's full of amazing looking women, which kind of sums up pop music in general).

Danny: Next 12 months:

• Feb - finish recording album with producer Stephen Street, mix first single, shoot our first video
• Mar - finish mixing album, release 'Blossoms Falling' as our first big release
• Apr - selected date tour. We're hoping to get in on The Super Furries, but we're up against a lot of competition on that one. Shoot second video.
• May - release second single 'Million Suns'
• Jun - Album 'The Magic Treehouse' released
• rest of summer: festivals, UK and Europe
• Aug - re-release 'Shorley Wall'

By this time we're playing it by ear. There should be more singles (Bees and Silver Planet), and hopefully trips to America and Japan, either for gigs or to sort out deals. Alternatively we might sell no records and end up back on the dole where we started.