The Go! Team - Proof of Youth

Now let me clear this up, our first gig was not a Franz Ferdinand support slot, stresses Go! Team captain Ian Parton when the Skinny quotes a misinformed article on the band. "We just happened to be playing the same festival as them, that's all."

So there you go, the Go! Team's first ever gig, at a Swedish festival and on the same bill as Franz Ferdinand, is no big deal, ok? How about this then: the band didn't even exist until a couple of weeks before the gig. Now we're getting somewhere. This DIY approach is what formed the very foundation of what the Go! Team are all about; first album Thunder Lightening Strike is a much publicized bedroom-recorded affair for which Parton and his brother-cum-producer share the credit, whilst upcoming LP Proof of Youth, although featuring the now settled 'Team line-up was still very much an 'our way or no way' affair.

"It (the recording) was a pretty relaxed affair, we just took each stage at a time, seeing what happened. There were elements of jamming; I wrote some lyrics; Ninja (main vocalist and principal onstage livewire) wrote some and everyone had a go. It was definitely a group effort this time round, I mean they're all better musicians than me," confesses Parton, "and they've got interesting voices which gave us far more options than with the first record."

Their latest is a sun-kissed beauty, evoking the good times of their gigs in an instant, with its treble-heavy production almost recreating a kind of early 80s TV theme vibe. For The Skinny, a certain US kids' show is vividly recollected and we've got to get to the bottom of this.

"I'd be lying if I said that Sesame Street wasn't an influence," smirks Parton, as if he'd been busted. "I've been checking out all these old Sesame Street scenes on Youtube, there's some wicked shit there – it's an untapped resource. I wouldn't say we're setting out to be evocative though, I don't know if that's possible. We're just trying to give our music a feel that is beyond the sound. I like throwing different elements in – I want it to sound schizo."

Such ambitions are surely tricky to recreate live, no? "Well we never try and replicate the record when we play live; we just go and do our thing. Ninja brings her own thing to the live show; she rules the roost and dictates from the stage."

So with ambitions of a 'mental' side, to their records at least, are the Go! Team an anti-pop band of sorts, challenging the listener to like the tunes? "I like to think we're a bit different, yes. I get inspired to be different by hearing anything that charts nowadays."

Whilst Parton is quick to disassociate himself from chart indie music - "it all merges into one: Editors into Bloc Party into something else" - he is well aware of the label's interest and joy in the band's relative success at this level: "I guess it gives us more freedom and allows us to try more things." Like megastar collaborations, perhaps? "Yeah, the whole Chuck D thing was quite a coup by all accounts (the Public Enemy maestro guests on Flashlight Fight), apparently he turns down hundreds of them a year."

And once we've punctuated this blether with the token: Do you enjoy playing Scotland? - "Yeah, they're the best crowds we play to" exchange, we go our separate ways. Looks like Parton and co are finally Go!ng places.