“I don't have a title for the album yet - I was hoping it would come to me as we recorded it - but a lot of it's about nightmares and playground torment. Those are the running themes of the songs,” says FOE frontwoman Hannah Louise Clark.

Whilst new single 'Dark Water Heart Breaker' waits in the wings, earlier single 'Tyrant' and its accompanying video are the best example of how Clarke evinces these darker elements of the human psyche - the video is filled with dancing clowns, odd masks and air of warped vaudeville, set with Clarke's melodic vocals and blunt, industrial-fuzz guitar chords.

It produces a balance of sweet and abrasive that she and boyfriend Adam M Crisp (who also records as Entrepreneurs), forged on earlier EPs Genie In A Coke Can and Hot New Trash. “Being in a relationship and creating music together can be quite intense, but we get understand each other, so it works.”

FOE have clocked up a promising start to their career, including a support slot with Atari Teenage Riot and remixes from Alec Empire and NYC duo Creep. While fans await the dark-sounding, as-yet-unnamed debut album, Clarke has been offering jagged film snapshots of the recording process on her Tumblr, disjointed video diaries full of shaky camera work and cut-and-splice scenes that switch from peaceful, idyllic pedallo boat rides to noisy studio jam sessions.

Clarke's elderly gran pops up in one or two of the video diaries, bashing out an impressive drum rhythm. “She wanted to visit me and ended up getting stuck in. She's very musical,” Clarke laughs. “She plays piano, a lot of classical stuff. I used to go to concerts with her when I was younger.” As well as playing piano and drums, Clarke's also a competent guitarist, inspired in part by her father. “He was in a punk band called Cry Wolf. He's pretty embarrassed about it now, but I've got some really good tapes of him performing live, and some amazing photos where he had green hair.” FOE has a decidedly punkish energy that Clarke fronts with a grungey, weirdo aesthetic - bubblegum-coloured wigs, masks, stop-start black and white animation and clown art. “I've always loved dressing up, probably for a lot longer than I should. I feel different when I'm on stage, like I'm becoming FOE, so I like to make that change a physical thing. With wigs you can be whomever you want, every night”.

It’s possible Clarke's penchant for costume and disguise are rooted in her school days, where she was the victim of bullying. “It got really weird and dark. It wasn't fun.” she says. For someone who spent a lot of time cowering in the playground, the bright wigs and loud, extrovert music must feel cathartic. “As I get older I realise who I am in FOE is totally different to who I was back then. I would never have imagined myself on stage back then.”

During those difficult years, Clarke found a kindred spirit, with whom she shared an “insanely close” bond. It was traumatic then, when Clarke's friend moved to Australia, abruptly and with no farewell. “She went without telling me, and I haven't heard from her since. It felt like I'd lost someone” she reflects. “It's kind of given me trust issues. I feel like I'll never have the same connection with anyone else. Most of my friends are guys now. In a way, it helped me spur me on. I just locked myself away and put all effort into my music. Music is my friend; It’s like self-therapy.”

For Clarke, FOE represents a meeting of noisy alt sounds and more refined, pop song structures. Her Tumblr is a mixed paean to twisted rockers such as Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor, and artists on the wholesome, clean-cut end of the pop spectrum. Though her Genie In A Coke Can EP may have given the impression she was parodying pop, she confesses a deep respect for it. “I think people got the wrong idea with Genie In A Coke Can; I think they thought I was attacking pop, which wasn't the case. I love artists like Celine Dion, and big power-pop ballads; I think a lot of people do, but it’s not cool to admit it - I think it’s seen as a guilty pleasure. I was more getting at the stuff that's churned out, like the stuff I hear on Radio 1. Everything sounds the same.”

Clarke is happy to acknowledge the '90s aesthetics at work in her FOE song writing. “I grew up listening to Elastica and Blur so I guess that '90s song writing filtered in subconsciously.” She may take from Britpop's forerunners, but the big, serrating chords and high voltage energy seem closer to the frenetic grunge of acts like Queen Adreena; she also turns out a cover of Nirvana's 'Serve The Servants' on YouTube under the alias Hannah Shark. “Well, I was also listening to Sonic Youth and The Pixies, Nirvana, too,” she concedes. “I was meant to open for Queen Adreena actually, with my old band Arthur, but they were a bit diva, and took a really long time to set up so it never happened.” Whilst Queen Adreena and front woman Katie Jane Garside have maintained something of an underground cult following, Clarke is aiming for the longevity of England's favourite icon of the last two decades - PJ Harvey. “Ever since I heard her I've wanted to be like her. I want to make music that people will cherish for years to come.”

Harvey's latest opus, 'Let England Shake', is a ghostly mix of pastoral nostalgia and ambivalent patriotism, inspired in part by her rural, conservative upbringing.

Clarke's own surroundings offered a less direct style of song writing inspiration. “I live in Fleet. It's a boring little commuter town. Nothing much happens here. It’s pleasant and middle class, a bit snobby.” Her upcoming single 'Deep Water Heart Breaker' comments on materialistic relationships whilst b-side, 'The Fox', is an “elegiac look at the dark and murderous underbelly which lurks beneath the idyllic façade of British suburbia.” “I think there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in places like this,” she says wryly. They may seem like blank, uninspiring townscapes, but places like that often tend to produce some imaginative artist, if only because boredom can be the best catalyst for creativity. “Exactly. There's nothing to do here, so you have to use your imagination. You can create your own world.”

FOE live dates:
30 July - Stealth vs Rescued, Nottingham
8 August - Old Blue Last, Shoreditch, London (single launch)