Moseley-based Pram have been together for over a decade. In that time they have created some of the most beautiful and haunting sounds ever to come out of Birmingham.

Using a cornucopia of instruments from toy piano to accordion, glockenspiel and theramin, Pram create songs that are impossible to categorise and pigeonhole.

Since 2003's Supersonic Festival at the Custard Factory, they've added another element to their performances with live video projection from Film Ficciones.

They play a rare local gig on Sunday 10th of October as part of Capsule at the Custard Factory, supporting German electronic trio To Rococo Rot.

We spoke to Max Simpson (Keyboards / Sampler), Matt Eaton (Guitar / Sampler), Sam Owen (Bass / Clarinet / Flute / Keyboards) and Laurence Hunt (Drums / Bass).

Vocalist and Keyboard player Rosie Cuckston is absent from proceedings. "She's out buying a futon" explains Matt, "Make sure you mention that - a futon!"

Your last album was Dark Island in 2003, have you been working on new material since then? Do you have plans for a new album?

Matt: It's taken us longer for some reason this time around, but we've been writing a lot of new stuff. I don't think the album will be soon though, I think we're talking more about next spring at the very very earliest.
Sam: We've been playing some of the new songs live for quite a while.
Matt: We're playing at the Capsule night at the Custard Factory supporting To Rococo Rot... I don't own any of their records, because I haven't been sent any by Domino! But I've seen them play live and they were absolutely fantastic.

Can you tell us about the direction your new material is taking?

Matt: It's a bit more instrumental. We've got two shows at the moment basically - one's instrumental and one is with vocals. Both feature work by film makers Film Ficciones. We're working with them, basically doing a back projection of films to our songs.

You played at the Supersonic festival last year - Do you know the people who organise Capsule?

Pram on stage (picture from www.capsule.org.uk)

Max: Yeah we know them, they're very nice.
Sam: It was working with them that we first started to use visuals and started to develop that side of things, once we'd done that we didn't want to lose that development.
Matt: It's a no turning back thing. We were commissioned by Capsule to do this kind of show - to collaborate with Film Ficciones. And I think it augments us well.

Do you find it difficult to get venues, because I imagine you've got a lot of equipment?

Matt: It's a lot more work - it's increased our workload immensely…we did a little cellar bar as part of a festival this summer. It was pretty much like going into a dingy German brown bar. You couldn't see the films especially well, but the impression you get from standing in the place was just a blur of images with us playing in front of them…it was quite effective…it seemed to go down well anyway.
Sam: We've got to tailor it really to the venue. We played an event in Belgium that was an audio/visual festival. And with that we had really big screens…so if it's a venue that's set up for visuals, then we can do a more spectacular show. If it's a small cellar bar we can still use the visuals but it's more based on atmosphere.
Matt: More of a guerilla kind of thing…

So how do you put it all together?

Matt: Well the guy lives in the flat above Sam, so we know him anyway. He uses vintage film clips, animation, some of our own material as well. I think in the future we will shoot more stuff ourselves.
Sam: We've already made three videos - this gives us more opportunity to shoot films….
Max: Four videos….
Sam: We've made four videos, but one doesn't count…..
Matt: We've made five videos but only three are for human consumption.
(Laughter)
Matt: Actually don't put that, it could be insulting….but we were young…

You've been going quite a long time. When you first started did you think you'd still be together now?

Pram on stage (picture from www.capsule.org.uk)

Matt: When you're that young I don't think you really think about thirteen years later…I certainly didn't. But the time has flown by…I hope the next thirteen years goes slower to be honest.
Max: Did you think you'd still be doing this?
Sam: No I didn't!
Max: Rockin' and rollin' until the day that I die!
Sam: I think once you start making music there isn't really a reason to stop.
Max: Not when we're rockin in the free world…
Matt: When you're creative, you don't really want to stop doing it and stop expressing yourself. Fortunately there hasn't been a reason to stop as our music is still developing. You can play all our albums in chronological order and our music does seem to be developing somewhere and I think this new set of songs goes somewhere else…further than 'Dark Island'.
Where it ends, none of us know…there's no master plan.
Sam: We're getting more opportunities to play in different countries…not just gigs, but arts festivals and things like that?

Where's your favourite place you've ever played?

Sam: San Francisco for me, or Zagreb
Max: Istanbul
Matt: Istanbul and San Francisco...I think each of our albums have sold more than the last around the world.

Are there any obscure countries in the world where you're really big and you get screaming fans?

Sam: Somewhere in South America….
Matt: Venezuela.
Max: Macedonia as well.
Matt: We were in the charts in Macedonia with Boyzone and Take That I think….
Max: Shhhhhh. You're so ruining this…(laughs) The kids will read it and go Take who?
Matt: We've got pockets of fans around in different places.
Sam: There's an Eastern European thing going on…we're hopefully doing some gigs in Poland quite soon and maybe in Russia as well….So we're going to places we've never been before.

How would you describe your sound to someone who'd never heard you before?

Matt: (pauses) It's quite weird you might like it…
Max: Chas and Dave meet the Bee Gees…
(Pause)
Matt: There's a description of it on the Domino website. (laughs)

On a website (andypryke.com), you were compared you to Shiitake Mushrooms and truffles as 'You can only be experienced and not described'...

Max: Like it!
Matt: What's the mushroom?
Max: Shiitake…you mean you've never tried them?
Matt: Not sure I like the sound of truffles…I prefer Shiitake mushrooms…it sounds better.
Sam: I think we've got quite a lot of layers like a mushroom. (laughs)