It's irrelevant."Brett and Rennie are sitting upstairs at Whelans, a small music venue in the middle of Dublin. For reasons known only to themselves, the owners saw fit to put church pews in the dressing-room, a touch that is oddly in keeping with Brett's background. Back in Texas ("land of bigoted, narrow-minded shit-heads") he became interested in music after singing at the local Baptist church."It was where I learnt to sing harmony. I played a game with myself where I would sing the bass part first, then the tenor, then the alto, then the soprano, and then start over just for fun. It's a great way to learn how to arrange parts for songs."Brett's time in Texas was largely unhappy - "I got hassled every day just because I was a skinny little dork that listened to classical and played piano" - but on moving to New York he felt homesick and listened to folk and old country music, from Bob Dylan to Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.

11/11 - 12/11 Score some Oakland Raiders Tickets staging in Metrodome, Overstock.com Coliseum. Oakland Raiders is staging in Minneapolis, Oakland and Miami Gardens. Oakland Raiders tickets

01/12 - 12/11 Capture San Diego Chargers Tickets playing in EverBank Field, Ford Field. San Diego Chargers is playing in Jacksonville, Detroit and Oakland. San Diego Chargers tickets

11/11 - 12/11 Reach Minnesota Vikings Tickets playing in Fedex Field, Ford Field. Minnesota Vikings is playing in Landover, Detroit and Atlanta. Minnesota Vikings tickets

The vocal harmonies and the style of singing is just so soulful. I started listening to Irish and English folk songs and blues from the Thirties and Forties. Once you start digging, it really never ends."The pair met at university: Rennie was a philosophy undergraduate in New York, while Brett divided his time between a masters degree in pre-14th-century music and playing in a rockabilly band; the band eventually won - "I was not on the tenure track, shall we say," remarks Brett. From there they moved to Chicago, where Rennie worked as a secretary, furtively writing short stories while pretending to type letters. Brett stayed at home playing guitar and writing songs."We always kept our jobs separate," remembers Brett. "We had been married six years before we started collaborating It just never occurred to us.

I'd been in a band ever since the beginning of college, but when then we got to Chicago I couldn't find anyone whom I wanted to work with."Brett set about teaching Rennie to play bass in the evenings. He also bought a drumkit and taught his friend Mark Werner to play it. "I had always been in bands with friends rather than musicians, so it didn't seem a weird thing to do. We did sound horrible, though.""We were just doing it for giggles, but then people just kept on booking us," recalls Rennie "They either thought we were funny or they liked the songs. So I guess then we started to take things a little more seriously."Rennie was still sending short stories to magazines and publishers, but to little avail. Would-be editors expressed admiration for her prose style though they were ritually exasperated with her dark subject matter. "They always wanted happy endings," she complains.Bit by bit, Rennie took over lyric duties in the band.