Danny: We are Danny Popplewell (me, singer, co-writer), Andy Flett (guitarist, co-writer), Sophia Churney (keyboards and vocals), Steve Flett (bassist, remixer) and Alan Kelly (drums).

Danny: Me and Andy met in 3rd year English at school, via a common friend, (Paul Wilkinson, by the way), but never really talked until the 4th year, when we sat together in Physics. We discovered a common interest in getting a band together, ZX Spectrums, psychic experiments (we used to spend lessons trying to move pens with our minds) and hyperventilation (also in lessons, we'd hold our breaths until we nearly fainted then snigger amongst ourselves).

Ooberman Mk I was called The Forestry Commission, where me, Andy and his little bro Steve would bang along to a drum machine in Andy's shed. By way, we also had an embarrassing experiment in doing a 'songwriting by mail' service, in which idiots gave us very small sums of money to record their ideas for songs extremley badly (on an old Amstrad 4-track). It was called 'Argentum Personalised Recordings', and we've still got the angry letters from dissatisfied customers to prove it.

Andy: We never emerged from the shed as that band incarnation, feeling the need to develop as songwriters before we made a real go of things. Me and Dan went our separate ways after 6th form, Dan to Liverpool to do Philosophy, and I ended up in Birmingham doing Physics. When Steve finished his art foundation course he too moved to Liverpool to become Danny's flatmate while he considered his future.

Then began a feverish correspondence between Dan and me about music and 'the band' which had never officially split. So delusional was the waffle we wrote each other, that I decided to move up to Liverpool to join up again with Danny and Steve.

Danny: We could go on forever here, but to cut a long story short, there was another short incarnation (Oliver Distortion), which lasted for about 5 rehearsals and 2 gigs. We lost our drummer then found another, Alan, who read our ad in the Liverpool drum shop he worked in. Then Sophia drifted in, first just playing keyboards until everyone realised what a fine voice she had, and how well it complemented mine. We were all doing other things, just doing the odd rehearsal together and never getting round to playing live until a manager came along and started paying for our rehearsals.

Andy: The name happenned by accident. We were on our way to a party at Steve's one summer's evening. For some reason the bus never came, so me and Dan entertained ourselves by creating a stupid character called the Scubaman, who was having a scuba party at the bottom of a swimming pool laced with LSD. As we created a sit-com world around the Scubaman, it turned out he had a friend called the Uberman who was the pinnacle of cool, and a geeky friend called the Doobieman who was not. It all made sense at the time. The bus came, we went to the party and in the course of relating the mad story of the scuba party, we stumbled on Ooberman as a band name.

Danny: Yeah, everyone thought that 'Uberman' made us sound like German church-burners, so we softened it to an 'oo'.

Danny: As for influences, I think me and Andy both fell under the spell of Jellyfish a couple of years ago. I've personally gone through a strange arc of fandom from The Pet Shop Boys to The Beloved, The Sundays, St. Etienne, The Wildhearts, The Boo Radleys, then I got into The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds) and Simon and Garfunkel and lately The Super Furry Animals.

Andy: At the height of Britpop, I was into Queen, Genesis and Fleetwood Mac. I got into them because they were entertaining, absorbing and delicate in their own ways. I also got into Jellyfish, Green Day and the Wildhearts, but never really felt comfortable with the kitsch overdose of St. Etienne.

Danny: Kitsch overdose? They only turned that way on their second album. Foxbase Alpha is as pure and sincere as they come. How can a Freddy Mercury fan criticise kitsch?