Things have changed in the past 12 months for Brighton's own Peggy Sue. For a start, the duo of Rosa Rex and Katy Klaw has ditched the And The Pirates tag on their name.

And now the line-up has expanded to include a new drummer, known as Olly Olly Olly, who will make his recording debut on the band's First Aid EP, due for release next month.

"When we started off with just the two of us, instrumentally we weren't great," says Rosa from a York hotel where the band is just waking up. "The sound we made revolved around a bassline on guitar and our voices. We made up for being unable to play anything else by making funny noises with our voices."

The new rhythm has added a lot to our songs. They have become more percussive now. Katy and I were never able to play anything for longer than two and a half minutes before, because we could only do so much with vocals and a guitar. Now our songs are getting really epic!"

"Olly was a fan of the band before he became a member, but it took a while for him to agree to join. We knew him a little bit," says Rosa. "We had this idea of adding a drummer and when we bumped into Olly at the South By South West Festival we mentioned it to him."

To the girls surprise his reaction was that it would be a bad idea, because it would change Peggy Sue's sound too much.

"When we got back home he rang us," says Rosa. "He just said, I want to be your drummer because I will do it properly. He s just suitably weird and fun, so he fits in perfectly.

"We are writing slightly differently now with him in the band. Our influences range from quite folky, to grungier riot grrl, and you are able to see that slightly different side to us on this EP. We've also got some violin and cello on this one. We are trying out new ideas."

It is all good news for the band's planned debut album, which they hope to start recording in February.

"We've started writing towards it," says Rosa. "We don't want to re-release any old songs. We want it to be completely new."

Fans have had a glimpse of the works in progress on a series of homemade monthly CDs of cover versions and demos.

"It s a slightly backward internet blog," admits Rosa who does the artwork on the CDs. "It's for the more technophobe person. We could have just done it on the internet, but we decided to send the CDs out to the fans two months late instead."

For now, the band is enjoying life on the road with the Triptych Tour, alongside fellow Brightonian Derek Meins and London s Alessi's Ark.

"It's lovely. We are all slowly joining one another s bands," says Rosa. "The travelling is really funny. We are pretty much homeless at the moment. We are staying in Travelodges and eating at service stations. It s all really glamorous! It will be good to be back in Brighton."

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