Keyboard, theremin, accordion and keytar player (not to mention lead vocalist) with Bearsuit, Lisa Horton, does not mind ‘eccentric’ or ‘colourful’… but, understandably, she can’t bear ‘wacky’!

“The first two to me conjure up ideas of exuberance and innovation,” she tells us, of her reaction to some of the words commonly used to describe Norwich based six-piece. “‘Wacky’ is a bit more ‘I’m 45, wear a cartoon tie to work and spend my weekends doing role-play.’”

Bearsuit certainly are ‘exuberant’ and, indeed, ‘innovative’ (the presence of the theremin alone justifies the latter). The use of ‘wacky’, however, (we won’t name names… ahem, The NME) does them a disservice; reserved as it usually is for the likes of people who do indeed wear cartoon ties to work, do indeed do role play at the weekend… and may also pride themselves in having once run the London Marathon dressed as a rhino for ‘charity’. Bearsuit fans these are not, though Lisa does tell me that their Latitude audience did boast a head-banging panda. “I think you can now find him on YouTube,” she says.

There’s no getting around it: Bearsuit are unconventional (God… That might just be worse than wacky?). Yes, they wear spacesuits on stage. Yes, their wealth of live instruments includes a keytar, an accordion and a theremin. And yes, there’s a healthy dose of kooky samples, handclaps and screeching art-punk electronics at play in lots of their songs. But at the heart of it all lies the kind of subtle indie-folk that’s more reminiscent of vintage Belle And Sebastian than Peaches.

From the tough streets of Norwich (actually they still live there) to the dizzy heights of a deal with Fantastic Plastic Records, a US tour this year and – after three albums - current status as one of the darlings of below-the-radar experimental indie pop, Bearsuit have always done it their way.

From the beginning though, they had the kind of support you just can’t buy in music… “We sent him a demo recorded in our bedroom and he played it on his show,” explains Horton, on how the band came to be the favourites of the late John Peel (“In an era when almost everything is quite like something else, Bearsuit are not quite like anything” said John Peel).

“It was like all our dreams and aspirations had materialised before we’d even played our first gig,”” she says. “The level of support he showed us was absolutely amazing.”
Peel went on to play every song Bearsuit recorded on his Radio One show and, when the band were without a label, even offered to restart his Dandelion Records Label to put their album out.

“We used to send him funny little postcards and he admitted that he had carried one round with him for a number of weeks because he liked it so much,” recalls Horton.

“We had the chance to meet him a few times at live sessions which was always very daunting and exciting. He was our biggest hero and we have missed him greatly.”

Now on their third album, Bearsuit have – amazingly – toned things down a little. Live shows these days only incorporate 12 different instruments (the “bare essentials” says Horton) and the live glass ringing and “bizarre samples of things like squirrels mating” have been stripped away to achieve the more polished sound that can be heard on the latest record, 2007’s Oh:io.

“We spent a lot more time over the latest album and I think that shows in the finished songs,” I’m told.

“In the early days, we’d just record a song practically live or in a couple of takes, often in people’s bedrooms or living rooms, because we were pushed for time or money, think ‘that sounds ok’ and then just release it.

“This time our producer Owen Turner at the Sickroom really pushed us to get the best we could do. We also had the luxury of being able to record more songs than we needed so we could cherry pick the best for the album.”

‘Don’t underestimate the power of a punch from a foxy boxer’ is the central message at the heart of Oh:io’s stand out track, ‘Foxy Boxer’… which encourages listeners to wave their library cards in the air like they just don’t care.

All electro handclaps and retro-cosmic-button-pushing on the surface, underneath is a song that could be (pre-shit) Blur in one of their more introspective Graham Coxon moods. The theme continues on other songs like ‘Mission IO Must Not Fail’ with the induction of at times Belle and Sebastian-esque horns and harmonies. There are more frantic moments, but the band sound most at home in laid back mood. I’m tempted to call it space folk, but don’t worry… I won’t.

Horton describes a Bearsuit gig as the most fun you can have without sex, drugs or dogs. Though we find this idea slightly depressing – fun times without the presence of some form of K9 are few and far between – we are tempted to ask if the band is purely about fun? Can Bearsuit ever achieve mainstream success with such a quirky sound and outlook?
“I’m not sure,” says Horton. “A lot of bands that get mainstream success are usually middle of the road and bland and that’s what makes them successful.

“But to be honest we’ve never tried to be anything else but pop and there are a lot of bands who are making music in a similar vein like Architecture in Helsinki, Battles, the Go Team, CSS, Los Campesinos, and Black Kids who are achieving mainstream success to different degrees. There’s hope for us yet!”

That’s the spirit…