After spending years on the verge of commercial success in bands such as Cosmetique and Elizabeth Bunny, Charlie Fuge and Sarah Churchill have decided to do things their own way.

Ditching the grimy streets of London for a sleepy village in Dorset, the duo have linked up with Sexton Ming to release their band's eponymous debut, The Avant Gardeners. But with haunting vocals, primal drums and songs dedicated to Nana Mouskouri and a monkey sanctuary in Dorset, don't expect them to appear on Top Of The Pops just yet.

The album is awash with strange sounds and peculiar songs. Is that what the band is all about, fucking with people's heads?

Charlie: The band is simply about us having fun. For years Sarah and I have gone 'avant gardening' a few times every week, which involves having a lot to drink, a lot to smoke, and seeing what happens. It's 'throw it against the wall and see what sticks' kinda music.

What instruments do you use to make such an oddball racket?

C: The whole thing is based around a toy drum kit we bought in a junk shop. It has plastic skins and sounds really rattly - just like a biscuit tin. We also use spoons, squeaky dog toys, bottles, pots, pans...

Sarah: Blowing through a blade of grass is my favourite, and our squeaky nun goes down well when we play live. We also make sounds by bouncing balls, banging xylophones or using a wheezy old harmonium.

'Rab's Army' is a horrifying story where angry animals march on a rural village to slaughter the locals. Do you wear balaclavas and bomb cosmetics companies in your spare time?

S: We're not active militants, but we're into animal rights as a concept. We wrote it as a sort of Countryside Alliance in reverse.

C: It was hilarious when the Countryside Alliance invaded the Commons. It's funny how you can get a million people on the streets of London protesting about the war in Iraq and there isn't any trouble, but when a bunch of tweed-clad yobbos come to town they end up fighting with the police. I was in stitches watching all those toffee-noses turning into bloody-noses.

Is it important for you to stay on the fringes of the music scene?

S: Definitely. I've felt isolated from straight society for most of my life, which isn't an easy thing when you're younger and looking for acceptance. Now it's something I relish.

C: We left London to avoid that consumption-crazy lifestyle, and now pick sloes to make our own gin. We have an aversion to what you might call 'normal people'. We're disgusted by the vast majority of humanity.

If I walk down Oxford Street, I'm repelled. Most of those people will hate our music, though, and that makes us very happy.

*The Avant Gardeners is available from Rough Trade shops and RIM Records (Sextonming.co.uk)