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You may not have heard of The Cast of Cheers yet, but you will do. The Irish quartet released a self-recorded demo in 2010 called 'Chariot', winning them a huge following on the Dublin music scene. Two years later, the band are set to release their debut album - and very good it is too.

We caught up with the Irish four-piece to film a live session and find out more about the band who are fast becoming one of the most exciting bands of 2012...

So, Cast of Cheers, you're about to release your first 'proper' album, how are you feeling?
Excited, we cant wait to get it out so people can love it. Or at least like it. It was a mad process, the songs were really fast and had loads of crazy loops so we stripped them back to get a better picture of them. So it's kind of a different album to what we expected to record.

Tell us how the band was formed.
A couple of years ago Connor got a looper pedal, not a 'loopy' pedal, one that loops music and he began writing the riffs that were on our first demo album, Chariot. We all played in various bands and we were all from the same town and had been playing music together for years so when Connor got the idea of putting the band together, it just fell into place. It wasn't like a new band forming.

We started jamming in October 2009, and we went in to record our album 'Chariot' at the end of the month. There was no beating around the bush; we put the album up online and we hadn't even played a gig. It hit a lot of blogs and became pretty big on the Dublin underground scene and we got gigs straight away.There were people watching us who knew all the words, we weren't even sure how to play the tracks!

Below: The Cast Of Cheers 'Poce Mit' (exclusive session)

Why have you brought 'Chariot' opener 'Goose' forward onto the new album, and no other tracks from the demo?
Well the record company really liked 'Goose' and they wanted to see what Luke could do with it. They actually wanted us to bring a couple of tracks across, but it was a new album, so we didn't want to. We were curious as to what Luke would do with 'Goose' though, and we really like the new version.

Chariot did well without any record label support. Did you consider carrying on without a major label back you?
There's a lovely office of people that do loads and loads of lovely things for us, which is great because we're absolutely terrible at organising ourselves. We are not business men. They're basically getting our music out to the world, we'd be playing in empty rooms in Dublin if we didn't have people helping us out. Plus they put us in touch with people and let us do the talking, so you're put into a whole new world, we have a far bigger reach than what we could ever achieve on our own.

How did you come to work with Total Life Forever producer Luke Smith?
He was free, we were free. We'd looked at a few people, and he was definitely our first choice, especially with him being in Clor.We met up with him one day for a cup of coffee and he had loads of ideas, like wanting to use analogue methods, and we were really into that too, so it was just obvious. Before we even started he wanted to sit down and get a feel for what we each liked, and how we communicated. He wanted us to build a vocabulary of how we each described music, so we know what it means when someone's talking about something being 'heavy'. He bought a completely different angle to the band, because everything was really fast and loopy, not loopy as in 'zany', loopy as in it was loop based. It wasn't wacky music. Luke could write a philosophy book, and we'd buy it.

New single 'Human Elevator' has been described as 'angular dance rock', would you say that was your 'sound'? Is that even a sound?
What is 'angular'? A lot of people are saying it's 'angular guitars', I guess it's sharp or single note riffs? So it probably is angular then. It is dance like though, because at the core of it we want to make people nod their heads as easily as possible and get them dancing.

Below: The Cast Of Cheers 'Animals'

Your first 'proper' album Family is released here next week, what can we look forward to and how does it differ to Chariot?
Sonically it's definitely a progression, we think it sounds lovely. Song wise, it's not necessarily a progression, Family is more side by side with Chariot, it's more song orientated. On the other hand, Chariot was just thrown out there, but this was all planned and organised. It's physical, you can hold it.

How did Latitude go? and are you looking forward to Reading and Leeds?
Yeah it was cool. The sun came out just before we played, so it as really good fun. It was our first open air festival gig, in fact it was our first festival in the UK. Its got a the same sort of vibe as the Electric Picnic in Ireland. I have family in Reading, and they've been trying to get me to go for years, so I'm finally going. As a band, so we get a free ticket!

You're off for a little trip to Australia in a couple of weeks, have you played over there before?
Two days on a plane, four gigs, straight back and then another gig at Y Not Festival. It's going to be mad. We're really looking forward to it though, I've always wanted to see Australia. It seems like the pop music down there is more alternative, and we've got loads of new Australian fans on Twitter and Facebook, and a couple of the shows are already sold out so we're really excited.

You've toured with some big names, Blood Red Shoes and Two Door Cinema Club for example, any good stories to tell?
Millions. There's the night we were in Bristol and thought we were in Amsterdam. We were on tour with The Blood Red Shoes having a few beers with some French people down by the river, and we'd been in Amsterdam the week before. So because we were drunk, we thought we were still there. The next morning we were really surprised when everyone spoke English. It was really bizarre. There was plenty of drinking on that tour, they love their booze.

And finally, we understand Kev is a former professional Irish dancer... Do the rest of you have any hidden talents?
Oh No, The cats out of the bag... It's just drumming with my feet! Jazz flute. No, we're a pretty talentless bunch. John's pretty good at the Internet, he's near the last level. He's also really good at the computer game 'Super Meat Boy', but that's more of a hobby than a skill. Oh wait, we're mean 'Switch' (cardgame) players, we play it on tour all the time. Me and Connor used to work in a hospital in Dublin, and all the old people used to play it, so we learnt the old school street rules. We were playing the other day in the Eurotunnel, so Kev is the official undersea champion. That's what the next album's going to be called; 'Switch Under The Sea'.

Thank you very much, The Cast Of Cheers. Their new album 'Family' is released 23 July, 2012.