Now your music is very relaxed do you ever feel like breaking out into hard rock?

I suppose so, yes, every once in a while. I think we have certain moments in our music where we have the opportunity to do that ? obviously without the stage dives and smashing guitars and breaking drums and amps. The last couple of shows we've actually been doing a Rage Against The Machine cover, 'Bullet In The Head' ? but adapted completely to 340ml.

Those live shows must be one of the band's biggest money spinners, but do they support you full-time?

It's really difficult for a band, especially like 340ml which has a very alternative sound, to survive entirely from music in this country. I mean if we were doing something like kwaito it would be different. But even now we still do other things to kind of make ends meet. Tiago does a lot of design, a lot of scoring for ads and films. I do a lot of voiceover work. Paulo has a clothing line which he works on. Rui has put together a compilation called 'Dub Vaults' which is on its third volume now. So we all do our things on the side.

But having said that, there are a lot of things 340ml does that we still refuse to compromise. We do everything in our own specific way and Tiago's sort of the driving force behind that. Like, we have our own label; our albums are signed to Sheer but we have our own publishing company; our design is done in-house. Basically we try and do as much as we can on our own, so in that way we sort of control everything that gets put out there.

And when the band goes out there ? on tour ? does anybody have bad habits that get on everybody else's nerves?

Nothing hectic. If you put any group of people together for too long you'll eventually get on each other's nerves. But the cool thing about us is we've known each other for so long we're basically family. We really are. I think it's the reason we've been together for so long ? by now we're effectively brothers. So if we do get to the point where we're pissed off with each other, we sort it out and it's over.

How about the shows themselves? Any experiences that stand out?

We got booked to play this venue in Durban a couple of years ago. We drove down and the promoters put us in this backpackers which was like the dodgiest place we've ever been. There were bedbugs, the linen hadn?t been washed in I don?t know how long and a lot of people had slept in those beds.

The gig itself wasn't actually too bad but, when we first started touring, Tiago had this thing about playing barefoot. At this show there was a huge problem with the way the stage and the whole venue was wired. So during the show he was electrocuted ? he got this huge shock ? in this epic part of a song. I remember looking to him and he looked like he was having the most fun ever. His face was all contorted and I thought 'Wow this guy's really enjoying it' but he was really in this complete pain. So that was the last time he ever played barefoot.

And what about Oppikoppi?

Oppikoppi is always a really magical experience for us. The whole weather thing aside ? the cold and us being from Mozambique ? it's always a really really good experience for us, so it's always a really nice party for us.

Everyone's got a really positive attitude ? we've played at quite a few Oppikoppis and we've never seen one fight. I've never really seen anyone in a bad state of mind - I mean people are here to have fun and listen to good music. But the dust is something else...