Why do I like The Indelicates... Hmm, it's a tricky one, because in all honesty I know that I probably shouldn't. In general, I like shouty bands that play artpunk noise drenched in feedback, like early Sonic Youth, or quirkily experimental pop bands that combine twisted, off-kilter pop songs with strange guitar effects, like Kaito. The Indelicates do neither of these things. They take the tried and tested boy/girl duo, but rather than using it to create bubblegum pop-punk, their songs seem more like musicals. The tune from 'Vladimir' could have been swiped from a Russian military march, 'New Art for The People' sounds like The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl, smothered in irony and updated for the 21st Century, and 'Burn All the Photographs' is full of dramatic piano flourishes and soaring vocals.

For now though, what with it being new year's eve and all, how about some resolutions for 2006?
Julia: "I should probably stop smoking, but it’s very hard, ‘cause I do really like it. Not because it makes me look cool… But it does make people look cool, it really does."
Simon: "What, like those people you see smoking through their emphysema holes?"
Julia: (laughs) "Yeah, that’s pretty cool, isn’t it?"
Simon: "So that’s my new year’s resolution, to get emphysema, and smoke through my emphysema hole."

Inbetween attempts to contract potentially life threatening illnesses, they're also extend their gigging beyond London and their home town of Brighton.
Julia: "I think we’d like to get some more gigs outside of London – not that we don’t like London, but I’d rather do more cities up North, I just think it’s a bit more exciting. We’d also like to play in Chatham – we saw the Space Peacocks play there – it was a fantastic little venue there, really nice. There used to be venues like that in Brighton, but they all disappeared."
Simon: "The thing I like about it is you don’t get just one type of kid, you get all the kids who hate each other, and they have to go there because there’ nowhere else, and it’s funny because they’re all sitting in separate corners of the room, like they’ve all got their own districts."
Julia: "It does help you to remember that the rest of the country isn’t just like London and Brighton and it’s quite cool to see that. You understand suddenly why when you get that whole London thing of 'Oh, I hate the Kaiser Chiefs, why do people buy their records?' and you think, well there is a reason, and not everybody’s like they are in London."
Simon: "They’ve got that thing which no-one in London can ever do, which is going ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe it, I’m actually excited about something!"

In the handful of gigs that they've played since forming earlier in 2005, The Indelicates have been making friends, and enemies, quickly.
Julia: "We have a really successful download scheme on our site. It’s peaked recently, it went crazy, mostly because of ‘Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die’."
Simon: "Which is our ‘controversial’ song – so Libertines fans post on forums about how I don’t like him. I do feel like writing them an essay explaining exactly what the song’s about."
Julia: "We would like to clarify that we don’t actually want him dead. I think a lot of people haven’t listened to the song, they just see the title – it’s pretty obvious when you hear the line ‘I haven’t cried since Kurt Cobain’. And anyway, Simon really likes Babyshambles, more than The Libertines, certainly."

There's no escaping from the fact that The Indelicates' theatrical, piano-led music is about as far from the current vogue for scruffy bands ripping off Doherty's legacy as it's possible to be, and a major part of that comes from their own musical backgrounds.
Julia: "I was born in Saudi Arabia, so we never really had very much pop music. And even when I first came here I was never really into it. As I got older I got even more into certain types of classical music, and I’m classically trained, so that helps to be able to play some of the stuff as well. And then, I discovered narcotics and dancing, and I got into happy hardcore for a little while – basically at the tail end of any dance scene that was still left alive. In Brighton it took a little while for it to die. Simon is the original indie kid. Which is a bit sad, ‘cause indie’s kind of over really isn’t it."

"I was always into cabaret music as well, and avant garde stuff I suppose, and dance hall and things like that too. I think it’s because I’m interested in history, and if you’re interested in history, you’re interested in a whole big bunch of music. But I have a particular favourite piece of classical music, which is Mozart’s ‘Requiem’. I nearly killed myself to that – well, didn’t nearly kill myself, I just wanted to – I was kind of like ‘Oh my god, it’s so dramatic! I must die to it!’ But I didn’t. I was very unhappy, but I got over, and I think ‘Requiem’ helped me through that. It is very, very scary, because he thought he was dying – well, in fact he was dying, he died before it was finished, and he thought that death had commissioned him to write ‘Requiem’ for his own death."
Simon: "It’s all about his mad evil dad, well not evil exactly, he was just very… Kind of like Smoosh’s Dad must be. I’m just guessing, no I’m sure they have a really nice father. Maybe more like Venus & Serena Williams’ dad. I like Smoosh though, they’re really good."

By the end of the interview, I'm still left none the wiser as to how this band have enchanted their way into my heart; I'm just happy that they have. Discover them for yourself at www.indelicates.com, and download all of their songs, or listen to this exclusive remix of 'We Hate The Kids' - let me know if you find the answer.

Interview & photography by Paul Madden