We're sunning ourselves in the garden of Straw's idyllic house/studio on a lovely summer's afternoon, grappling with the conundrum of how to satisfactorily blow Straw's collective horn, in a fashion that does them justice, but which doesn't smack of hollow boasting. How very English. With a gorgeous, tune-drenched album, it's indicative of the shades-requiring bright futureness currently being enjoyed by the family Straw, that this is the only dark cloud edging into their metaphorical blue sky.

Its been a funny old voyage for HMS Straw and all who've sailed in her, from their sketchy roots in Bristol, to their dalliance with that fickle mistress Chart Fame, to their current pole position on the starting grid of the 2001 music grand prix. But maybe that's just the way they tell it.

"We met on a deserted trading estate in Bristol. It was very furtive." Begins Duck, the band's organist/producer, of his first encounter with Straw's singer songwriter/guitarist, Mattie. He's fibbing. You can tell. His lips are moving. "Oh, okay", he relents, "we met in a recording studio in Bristol. I was the in-house engineer and I made techno music on the side. He was in a band demo-ing their songs. I heard their stuff, loved it, and we moved on from there."

The splicing of Mattie's songwriting and Ducks's knob-twiddling know-how soon won them a recording contract with WEA. They picked up drummer Andy after Duck saw him playing with another band. "He wasn't looking happy." Straw's debut album, "Shoplifting", which, along with hit single "The Aeroplane Song", succeeded in welding Mattie's sure-fire pop-wisdom to the national psyche and was a much missed gem.

The success of "Shoplifting" sent the band across the country, touring the album and tangling with glitchy technology, experiences which, in many ways, led directly to the Straw we find ourselves confronted with now. For, at the end of the tour, the band parted ways with bassist Roger and WEA. Pared back to a three-piece, until finally recruiting Dan McKinna on bass, Mattie, Duck and Andy repaired to the home-studio in Andy and Duck's basement to record an album that would define the new sound of Straw.

"We stripped everything down", remembers Andy, "got rid of the beats, the loops, the strings, all that nonsense. We've made and album we can play live." "The new album's a lot easier to listen to." contends Mattie. "You're being bombarded with a lot less information. The first album's a good record but this is more a complete record. Because it took so long to record the first album, it felt disjointed, the styles and songs jarred a little. Whereas this time, because the songs and ideas were coming so quickly, and were recorded at the same place with the same vibe and the same sound, it flows much better. It feels a much more honest record."

"And it was lovely to record without a label breathing down our necks. We were between labels when we made most of this album, so I had an incentive to write as best I could, so we could get signed. Because we recorded at home, we weren't looking at the clock worrying how much it was all costing. We could take things at our own pace."

"Playing the first album's songs live was becoming a chore." adds Duck. "Co-ordinating all the sequencers and samples and playing against the machines. It was too rigid. It was a technical nightmare. Now we can play the songs as a quartet, and it feels much more organic, we can play about with the songs and not have to worry about the sequencers going out of synch."

Three-quarters of the way through the recording process, the band brought Dan, their new bassist, onboard. His audition involved playing not one note of bass-guitar; instead, the band sat down with him and chatted football for hours, to make sure he was the kind of guy they could spend weeks on the road with. He passed, with flying colours, and Straw became a complete band again.

Which pretty much brings us to the present day, cups of orange juice in our hands, savouring the English sunshine. The band have now signed to Columbia Records, have an excellent EP due to grace record stands any day now, and an album called "Keepsakes" waiting in the near distance for release that'll provide even clearer evidence of this band's greatness. They contend that they're not directly influenced by the records they listen to, indeed, the Straw record collection stretches from the pop heartlands all the way out to Duck's Can albums, (which the other three can't stand) which may give you an indication of the erudite, heartfelt, sky-scraper-straddlingly melodic popmagic Straw are waiting to tease us all with perfect Summer music that satisfies all year round, songs that warm emotional cockles and tickle your brain's funny bone.

That kind of thing.

So. Straw. They're really ace. It's as simple as that, Andy.