”Our greatest ambition would to be like the Wailers of the west of Ireland. We’ve probably got a long way to go yet.”

Interviewing the Saw Doctors is a slightly surreal experience, it has to be said. Given that they’ve not exactly had the easiest of rides at the hands of the press over the years, with reactions ranging from indifference to outright hostility, you might not expect them to approach their promotional duties with the springiest of step. Yet Leo Moran and Pearce Doherty (who, along with Davy Moran, form the heart of the band in 2002) are not only charm itself, but also engaging, interested and very funny. It’s just that you’re not too sure when they, especially Moran, are gently taking the piss.

They can afford to take such a laid back attitude safe in the knowledge that, at the end of the day, they don’t really need to play this game. They know that they will continue to pack venues all over the world and sell many, many copies of their fine new Villains? album with or without those all-important column inches. So when hotpress kicks off by asking whether it was a conscious decision never to locate themselves in Dublin, Pearce is more bemused than anything else. “That’s kind of like asking the Housemartins why didn’t they move to London. It’s the same for us, everything that we need is in Galway. Our studio is there, our rehearsal space is there, our record company is there.”

Of far more importance in the early days was, it transpires, a long European tour supporting the Waterboys.

“That was the key as to why the band is still going today,” says Pearce. “We learned how to

be a band, the mechanics of it, what it took to do a show. That was a great blooding.” Leo agrees. “To go from doing a gig every two to three weeks to doing thirty dates in a row makes you a different band.”

It’s that stage craft that has stood the Saw Doctors in such good stead over the past thirteen years, enabling them to build a fiercely loyal and supportive audience on an international scale that many, more credible, bands could only dream of. Pearce is admirably self-effacing about their appeal.

“If you want to go and see a band we’re very dependable, you know that we’re going to do a good show. I cannot remember a bad gig, we always deliver and that’s our biggest asset.”

But there is more to the Saw Doctors than just a good night out. They have mastered the, oft derided, art of penning classic, simple songs that boast a universal appeal in both melody and message. You might well think that you can’t stand them, but if it were Travis producing songs like ‘Happy Days’ and ‘Darkwind’ you’d probably be lapping them up.