A guitarist who didn’t play guitar, a group who didn’t listen to folk, and a band that didn’t really want to be a band – just how the hell do The Cave Singers exist?

It all started innocently enough. Seattle based housemates Derek Fudesco, then of post-punk five-piece Pretty Girls Make Graves and Pete Quirk (of electro-indie rockers Hint Hint) found themselves in a bittersweet situation when both of their regular bands came to an end between the twilight of 2006 and the onset of 2007.

Whilst it was an end of an era for both, it allowed their slowly blossoming “bedroom project” to come to the fore. Compared to the raucous digital noise that had often been the music of choice for the two beforehand, the rustic folk subtlety that beset them in their living quarters was a distinct change of pace. In fact, it wasn’t even something the two had even listened to that much.

They were soon to be joined by another synth-rock veteran in the form of drummer Marty Lund from Cobra High, and occasional live shows begun. As Derek explains on a brief stopover in London, it all started innocently enough:

“Pete and I started writing songs whilst Pretty Girls Make Graves were still working on our record (2006’s Élan Vital). When our drummer (Nick Dewitt) left, no one really wanted to get a new drummer - everyone was kinda over it - so it just happened. It was perfect because Pete, Marty and I had been planning and writing a lot of things by then.”

He adds: “The whole thing came about because Pete had an old acoustic power guitar. We were both doing these bedroom project recordings, and I wrote a few songs on his guitar and then he sang on it, recorded it and we really liked it. Once it got to the point after we started playing with Marty, we decided we would try and play shows and be a band, we wanted to keep it as close to that as possible, so we kept it acoustic.”

Soon afterward, The Cave Singers found themselves in the recording studio with former Pretty Girls… producer Colin Stewart, with debut album Invitation Songs the result. Released Stateside in September 2007 before hitting the UK in February ’08, it meant in just over the space of a year the band had gone from side-project to a full-on operation. It doesn’t mean the core principles of the band will change though.

As Derek explains, “the more people get in the mix, the harder it gets.” With a wealth of experience playing in larger bands (he also appeared in garage rock sextet Murder City Devils), he’s well equipped to discuss the mechanics behind the writing process:

“I’ve always been in bands that were very collaborative, and when you get four or five people working on a song, it tends to lose a lot of focus. With this band the whole first record was just Pete and I working on it with just two ideas, and even now with Marty writing it’s still so much easier as it’s just the three of us working on it. There’s no egos or anything like that.”

Fudesco admits that the warm reaction the band has received has been, “amazing…a neat surprise”, but it hasn’t stopped him from having problems with Internet reviews; claiming he really isn’t “trying to read them, whether they’re good or bad. Just hearing one person’s opinion on what they like and what they don’t like, it just makes you think about it.”

Thinking is definitely not something that is high on The Cave Singers’ agenda – in a positive way. Re-iterating the point that the basis of the group is, “just friends playing music and getting to travel, that’s all it is”, Derek is also quick to point out that even though he is immersed in a folk-based band, he’s only “checked out a few things” in the genre of late. It soon becomes apparent that all the inspiration he needs comes from home.

Derek soon sets the scene: “Seattle, it’s beautiful. Pete and I live in a house on the top of a hill, when you look out the window you can see the water and mountains. Our house has a pretty amazing history, it’s about a hundred years old and the woman that we’re renting from was born in the house.

“Her father’s a vocal coach and he also used to be a vinyl cutter. In the forties and fifties he was a big jazz fan and he used to get jazz musicians who used to tour through Seattle to come to the basement and play live, and he would do one of a kind recordings cut to lathe.

“This house just has an amazing musical history and I think more than anything having a space like that where we’re not surrounded by other bands playing provides us with a lot of inspiration. The house just responds really well to music.”

Has he ever been tempted to try and use the lathe to cut their own special edition releases? “The lathe was there for about the first year and a half, about seven months ago she took the lathe out,” says Derek. “Unfortunately not all the component parts were there - I think they’re pretty hard to come by!”

With a house dripping in musical heritage and folklore, its influence is easily found within their debut LP. Imagery of rolling prairies and diners within Invitation Sounds enhance this basis of stereotypical Americana. Does Derek agree? Hesitantly, he responds: “I guess it is. I mean I would never describe it as an American album, especially in this day and age! But it is definitely influenced by that.”

Modern day apprehension aside, how have the public been responding to their sound? With the group itself putting little to no emphasis on their contemporaries, what have others made of it? With a light chuckle, Fudesco says: “The ones I’ve got a couple of times was (1980’s‘folk-punk’ pioneers) Violent Femmes, but I don’t really hear it.

“I think it’s just funny how different people hear different things and people think it sounds like this or like that. Someone at the first show in Glasgow said that we sounded like R.E.M.! [Laughs] I’ve never heard that before!”

With at least eighteen songs already under their belts, it sounds like The Cave Singers are also showing no signs of let up. With album two still very much in its infancy, are there any thoughts toward its construction?

Derek says there’s “a place in upstate New York where we’re looking at” to go record, but nothing is finalised yet. With Marty Lund now deeply involved within the writing process, is there a change of approach at all?

It would seem there is only one: “I think we’re wanting to try and go somewhere we can stay for a month instead of going home, watching TV and then going back to the studio, so we don’t do anything but write a record!” laughs Derek.

The Cave Singers appear at the Greenman Festival, Glanusk Park in Wales over August 15-17th.