If this year has been characterised by a plethora of less well known bands producing great records, like Mercury Rev's 'Deserters Songs', then Grandaddy definitely deserve a mention. They released 'Under The Western Freeway', an album of experimental pop that combines a nostalgia for eighties electro with the hefty use of a guitar now and then. At times it is breathtakingly fragile and then at others it bristles with a simple pop aesthetic chasing after the hook and nailing it righteously.

Lead 'daddy is Jason Little, a man with a beard and a cap who looks unprepossessing and kindly. His eyes hide under the peak of his cap and his voice is quiet and thoughtful. He is the main creative force behind the 'dad and the one with the delicate high pitched Brian Wilsonesque singing voice. He started the band with a local drummer and bass player and wrote and performed as a three piece for four and a half years before getting a keyboard player and second guitarist to bolster the sound.

"We started off with the simplest of a components and then I started adding keyboards myself and then I started messing around with tapes and then I just kind of ran out of hands. The recording was also getting a little more expansive and there was just this need to make the live thing a little more representative of what we were recording. I've actually been fortunate to keep all these guys together and the two new guys that came in have really helped expand what I was trying to do."

However, he remains the main creative impetus and it's probably his vision of what warped pop music should sound like that comes across on the album.

"I've always been the one who's gone out and subjected myself to these sort of situations and looked for new music. I put the most effort in trying to stretch and find new things. Luckily it's not this quest to be really weird and obscure or anything and I think I know their musical tastes and I know my musical tastes and I know they are pretty similar. Also, any small disparities that do exist I try to find a happy medium. I do try to write with the whole rest of the band in mind cause I can kind of tell what might excite them. The ego thing is really not a factor and it's kind of nice that it's not."

Grandaddy songs operate on two levels really. There is the basic emotional core of the song within the words and tune and then there are the extras which twist it into something weird and wonderful. You have a track like 'Laughing Stock' which revolves around a simple strummed acoustic guitar and the refrain "I sit and play guitar" whilst someone lays down these huge slabs of electro strings that make it sound like a refugee from the new romantics. The song always comes first but what comes after is anyone's guess.

"I really come off sounding old fashioned when I talk about songwriting and the responsibility of the songwriter and that but I think the intentions are pretty right on and noble. You're literally sitting down and documenting whatever's affecting you at that time. You don't have to really make any excuses, you just document what's going on. As far as recording them and dressing them up sonically then that's a whole other thing, but as far as the song goes then if it's pretty honest in the first place you don't have to make any excuses."

As a live band Grandaddy have made a pretty good fist of replicating the layers of their recorded material. They initially struggle when they play Wolverhampton's Varsity but once they get a couple of technical hitches sorted out their rambling arrangements start to take hold and Jason's plaintiff voice starts to ring true. They know the value of a simple, beautiful refrain yet don't waste time in taking their songs to odd places most guitar based groups wouldn't dare to go. However, at the heart of the group is a hunched, friendly face, gently baring his soul. It's truly moving music.

Grandaddy were talking to Ben Ladkin, in November 1998.