Increasingly popular in post punk and new wave circles, O. Children are almost household names (depending on your household). They've been here before, or at least some of them have, in the pleasingly named 'Bono Must Die' collective, which was dissolved after legal issues. This time around they just want to entertain, and going by their packed schedule of gigs, festivals and imminent EPs, the public are happy to go along with it. They've been compared to Joy Division and Bauhaus, but their self-assessment is simpler: "We just want to make pop with an edge," singer Tobias tells me. "Everything else you can decide for yourselves". Just before a typically high octane thrill ride of a show at Ghost School in The MacBeth I catch up with Gaultier (guitar), Harry (bass), Sleath (drums) and Tobias (vocals), for a few words on where they're at.

DP: So you must be pretty pleased with how things are going at the moment?

T: Well yes and no. It's fun playing more gigs and having more people know about us, but we don't feel like we're anywhere yet.

H: We're not famous.

DP: How do you establish a connection with your audience?

T: A lot of honest passion. Our songs are full of lust and love and we hope that touches people. We put so much energy into a show and I think our audiences appreciate that. Also our energy is very suggestive, so hopefully they get a bit turned on.

DP: I understand you've played together under a few band names. So how long have you guys been together?

T: Well, if you're talking about Bono Must Die, that was just me and Gaultier and we stopped that about a year ago. Obviously there were a lot of issues that went with that (Bono's lawyers threatened to sue), so we tried being 'Sex Pest' and a few others.

H: As O. Children it's only been about 7-8 months. It's just been really natural and exciting.

T: We've become this kind of lovefest monster.

DP: Has it all been plain sailing since then?

T: Not exactly, we've had tough moments. Awful promoters messing us about, having to work with bad sound technicians that ruin your songs.

S: Plus we had this show in Scotland where only five people turned up. That wasn't much fun.

T: We had to cancel a gig last year cos I got arrested.

DP: Oh yeah? What happened there?

T: Nothing too exciting. It was a travel offence, but somehow they kept me in prison for four days. Still, I've learned from that and I can safely say I will not be getting into any more trouble with the Transport Police.

DP: Good. When did you start to get the feeling this was going to work out?

S: After our first gig. There were constant blackouts so we could never play properly. The lights, the sound, everything kept cutting out. But we still had a great time so we thought, "If we can enjoy that, this is going to be special.”

DP: Is it important to you to become rich and famous?

H: Well I'd like to see this as my career, so naturally if we do well with it those rewards will come. We'll keep doing what we're doing and see where that gets us, money and fame are not obsessions, but would be nice.

T: We just slowly oil the car wheels towards money town...

DP: Is your creative process more method or madness?

T: I come up with a lot of the ideas and then we batter them into songs. A lot of our material just comes out of us spending time together and bouncing thoughts around.

DP: How can audiences get the most out of watching you?

H: Try to forget other bands, any preconceptions at all. We try and make music that we enjoy and then hopefully that enjoyment translates to the audience. We're basically a pop band. We're not afraid of trying to make songs that are really easy to listen to. You don't need to know anything about music to enjoy us. We try to keep an edge, but fun is the main idea. 

DP: Finally, what can we expect from you for 2009?

T: We have some EPs coming out in the next few months. Look out for Dead Eye and Dead Disco Dancer, which are as good as anything we've done yet. Also gigs, tours and ideally some festivals in the summer. We're only just getting started.

Hear O. Children over at www.myspace.com/ochildren