Peggy Sue And The Pirates, Peggy Sue And The Pictures, now just plain old Peggy Sue, Brighton’s foremost folk songstresses finally released their debut album, Fossils And Other Phantoms, on Monday.

Originally a two-piece headed by Rosa Rex and Katy Klaw, now expanded to include Olly Joyce on drums, the duo have been performing together for five years – though Fossils only features new material from the past two years written under the moniker Peggy Sue.

Famous for their DIY attitude, including writing, recording, selling, booking and promoting themselves, they have had more than a million MySpace hits, possess a burgeoning fanbase and, along with bands such as the Arctic Monkeys, helped pioneer a new business model for the music industry.

That was enough for indie label Wichita to snap them up and the reason so many in Brighton offered their unerring support, with Laura Marling and The Maccabees inviting them on tour. Ahead of an in-store at Resident Records, The Guide had five minutes with Rosa.

Why did you change the name again?

“There are ridiculous amounts of bands who are ‘and’ someone else. Also, it was to do with us stepping away from our old arrangements.

If we got someone else in – anyone that wasn’t me or Katie – we didn’t want them to just be an ‘and’ person. Ollie is an equal member.”

How has Olly’s arrival changed the sound of Peggy Sue?

“It has affected the way we write. Before it was more singer-songwriter, because Katie and I always wrote separately and lots of the songs were personal. Now we work our songs out together.”

What about rhythm and dynamics?

“We always wanted drums but we never found anyone, so we tried to teach ourselves but were terrible. We always wanted to expand and make a different type of music; a drummer allows that. We also used to write percussive melodies. Now we’ve a drummer to do that instead.”

You’ve been keen to point out Fossils And Other Phantoms is an album, not a collection of singles ...

“Basically, it’s just not a pop album, which is a collection of songs that could potentially go on the radio.

I like an album that has a few songs you’re only ever going to listen to on headphones in your room, stuff a band will never play live because it doesn’t suit a live performance. That makes it a real listening experience.”

The album’s mood seems very bleak – especially with the artwork [which features an empty, dark-floored room] – you mention it is about endings ...

“The title refers to the things that remain after those endings. It is sombre, but it’s not as dark or heartbreaking as everyone thinks. When we say endings everyone thinks that means relationships but it’s not. There’s a lot about language and the difficulty of expressing yourself.”

Much has been made of MySpace’s influence on the industry – how did it affect you?

“A major label wouldn’t have been that impressed with our MySpace page, but it was brilliant because we had direct contact with our fans. We even released a CD every month solely through our MySpace page.

“When the CDs didn’t get there, because we are shambolic, we’d get emails telling us to hurry up!

“Now there are so many things to follow – Twitter, Facebook – bands have stopped doing it themselves and hired people to keep them running. Sadly, it’s no longer about people talking in a normal way to people who like their music.”

* Free, today, 6pm, for tickets call 01273 606312