If friends in high rock 'n' roll places, influential connections and the imprimatur of their peers was all it took to make it to the top in the music world, then Cronin would be enjoying a very panoramic view indeed. The Mullingar outfit, formerly known as The Aftermath and headed up by Johnny and Mick Cronin, certainly seem to have mastered the art of winning friends and influencing all the right people.

Their debut album, The First Kiss Of Love includes a roster of guests that includes Waterboy Steve Wickham, The Frames' Karl Odlum, Shane MacGowan, Pugwash's Tosh Flood and Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey, Tindersticks.) "We're not a critic's band," insists Mick Cronin. "It's quite retro as we're obsessed with music and it's a nod to our influences. We've no intention of hiding that fact."

Despite it being their debut outing, they've attracted some notable fans of their own recently. In fact, a few months back when Noel Gallagher needed to escape the glare of the paparazzi as he emerged from a London club, he chose to hide his mug behind a Cronin CD. As Johnny Cronin explains, it was yet another one of those serendipitous things that seems to happen to the band with impressive regularity. "We've been playing with Shane MacGowan a lot recently and he was asked to do this benefit for Palestine at Ronnie Scott's club in London, so we went over on the boat. It was a great night, Van Morrison was on the bill and Noel was sitting in the front row having the craic with everyone. We ended up drinking with him until five in the morning and we got on great, especially when he heard our mum was from Crossmolina."

Mick takes up the story: "We gave him a copy of our CD, and when he came out of the place much later, he put it up to his face to block the cameras. It appeared in the Daily Mail the following day, Twitter started lighting up and NME got hold of it. We sold about 300 downloads of the album on the back of that alone - a lot of them in Japan!" In their previous incarnation as The Aftermath they enjoyed decent success over the best part of a decade with their mod-influenced fare. But why the name change? "We were The Jam then and now we're the Style Council," Johnny quips.

"But seriously, while people might have known that we were named The Aftermath after our favourite Rolling Stones' album, a lot of people, including some promoters, seemed to think we were some kind of heavy metal band and they thought it wasn't what it said on the tin. That said, we once did a gig in Mitchelstown and we were called After Mass so that was even weirder. With a name like Cronin you can't really go wrong - it's like Madonna. It's very Irish too and we're happy with it."

The album, which was three years in the making, displays a mellower, more 'mature' style with ambitious arrangements and a rich sonic template. One track that has caught the ear of the industry is 'Nelson Riddle', a tribute to Frank Sinatra's legendary arranger. Says Johnny: "Dermot O'Leary played it on BBC Radio 2 and Paul McLoone has played it a few times. Steve Lamacq said it was like a mix of Richard Ashcroft, Nick Cave and A House, which we loved. The song was influenced by American Music Club's 'Johnny Mathis Feet'. We did a gig in London and Nelson Riddles granddaughter was there which was a bit mental. "There's a good bit of Dexy's and Van Morrison in a song like 'In Loneliness Lives Love', he adds. "We actually have Helen Turner from the Style Council on that one."

Mick says the high production values are an important part of the Cronin sound. "We've our own studio and we're real trainspotters when it comes to recording, mastering and mixing and just trying to get that analogue warmth. It's quite heartbreaking really when your record costs ten grand to make and then everyone listens to it on their phone. Then you have other people buying the vinyl but I'm not sure if they're actually playing the records or just hanging them on the wall."