Two of the three who would be Gang of Four discuss their disrespect of wood. Lesley Sly is the One who interviews. Paul Spencer is the One who clicks the shutter.

Andy Gill had lost some wisdom that morning — a tooth. There was still a long pre-tour rehearsal, a stream of interviews and several photo sessions to go.

Such is a Day in His Life. But he has reasons to be cheerful, believing that Gang of Four are on the road to a wider audience through their new album "Hard" and the accompanying trek across Europe and America: they have a big following in the States, but six years' work and three (previous) albums have not realised that level of appreciation at home.

"Although we all live in London we still feel like exiles here sometimes," says guitarist Andy. But he denies that "Hard", with its big production, loose, airy atmosphere and sweeter (strings and horns) melodic flavours is a blatant charts-or-bust enterprise.

"It remains to be seen whether or not it is more commercial, but whatever it is... it is deliberate," he says. "I'm very happy with it. There are some very good songs on it."

Using strings was a natural progression. "I've always liked strings on records and the sounds I often get on guitar are like strings. There are particular harmonics, with chorus and echo, that sound like a string section playing."

And so to guitars. "I'm not a guitar fanatic. I don't go round collecting them and I admit I don't reach for a guitar and sit around strumming the moment I get home." But he has a passion for the instrument.

Up to the age of 13 Andy Gill was strictly non-musical. "Then when I discovered I could get a rhythm out of a guitar... well, it was such a thrill. And I still get that thrill. My interest is getting a guitar to sound like other things, really exploiting the possibilities. It's an incredible instrument. I mean, compared to a synthesiser. You can still process the signal like that but then there is the sheer physicality, you can scrape it, bend it, hit it. There's such a variety in the sound. Synths are a bit dull by comparison."

Andy's sound is a mesh of opposites — clean, clipped rhythmic picking and effect - loaded, long, soaring cascades of harmonics and ambient rumblings.

Feedback without final screech is a speciality and it's all done with a simple on-off button (which he devised and would patent if a suitably scientific label sprang to mind). Both guitars (Burns and Stratocaster) are fitted with the button which cuts the circuit. He bends a high note then releases the button, giving him complete control over the duration of feedback.

He uses Carlsbro Professional amps with built-in chorus, reverb and vibrato, choosing a clean transistor sound because valves "are too sweet".

Dual and (foot) switchable channels give him immediate access to the two settings required. The battery of effects is headed by a tremolo unit built by friend Pete Holmes. "It's hard to get a proper tremolo unit these days. People often get vibrato (oscillation in tone) and tremolo (oscillation in volume) confused." Along with the graphic equaliser (to cut hiss especially when using different voltages abroad) and an Ibanez box (analogue delay, parametric compressor, chorus) he uses an MXR Pitch Transposer.

The MXR is essential for recreating onstage some studio guitar sounds (slowed down tapes, for example).

Andy coaxes a breathtakingly low sonic dive from the guitar on "Woman Town" by softly scraping the E-string and slowing the tape nearly to a stop. With the transposer he can recreate that sound perfectly live.

Detuning is another method of deepening the sound, allowing him to play several parts fluidly at once. On "Man With A Good Car" he tunes the bottom E to D, the A-string to an octave D and the D-string to an E, with the rest in regular tuning.

"I don't have a great reverence for my guitars — they're just bits of wood. Some people (Robert Fripp) are horrified by the way I bash them (guitars) about. But I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum to someone like Fripp.

"He practises everyday with a metronome, stretching his fingers — a notes-per-second technique. I'm only interested in inventing techniques to enable me to create new sounds and songs."

Andy's quest for extended guitar language is leading him hesitatingly towards computers. "Pete (Holmes) and I have been talking of computerising all the effects so that I could press a button and immediately get a complete configuration of sounds. But, as yet, I'm reluctant to go ahead. Too much could go wrong. As it is if something does go wrong on stage it can be any one of 50 things. It can get out of hand."

Does the guitar cease to matter, in terms of its individual sounds qualities, when the signal is driven through such a plethora of treatments?

"Mmm, yes I suppose so," he says, pausing. And then in a rush of enthusiasm: "But I'm always amazed at how distinctive good guitars sound through good amps. Just clean. Hmmm, I must utilise that sound more."

In a previous conversation, Sara Lee (bassist on some tracks only — and this is another story) was proud of the fact that Gang of Four hadn't resorted to synths in the studio. "I hope we never use them. Everyone else is, and I think it's better to use the real thing (strings)," she said.

"I don't agree with that," Andy intones carefully (there is dissension and some bitterness over the revamped Gang of Two and a Half). "I'm not a purist and I don't think synthesisers are evil. We'll be using one live to play the string parts. I see them as an accessory, like marimbas and metal pipes and other bits and pieces we use."

While the guitar provides the texture and hooks on "Hard", the bass-tight funk which sinks/syncs into the drums — is its spine.

And it is a bone of much contention. The songs were written by Andy, vocalist Jon King and bassist with The Group Jon Astrop. Astrop plays on four of the nine tracks.

"The producers rightly wanted to make the best album they could. And they thought Jon played those songs better than I did," says Sara. "The first I heard the songs was when I was given a tape on the flight to Montreal (where the album was recorded).

"Since then we've rehearsed and I can play them and know I could have done it but... it still feels awkward sometimes playing someone else's bass-lines."

Does the album's continuity suffer?

Sara says: "You can tell it's not the same person playing." Andy disagrees: "But I do feel sometimes it's not Sara's style, and that could be a bad thing."

Was it beneficial then? Andy: "The bass parts are ideal for the songs. That's most important."

For Sara, being drafted out in the studio has cast a shadow over the proceedings ("I feel pissed off about it") but she still feels "Hard" is the best album they've done.

She joined the band two years ago after a 10-month stint with Robert Fripp's League of Gentlemen. "I'd only been playing for two years when I joined Robert and it obviously helped my career getting recognition at that stage. But I don't think I learned that much musically from him. He didn't tell me what to play, which usually surprises people. We all wrote the songs together.

For six years Sara played double bass in orchestras before dropping out of music altogether at 16. She picked up electric bass ("fairly easily") at 22 and worked in her native north playing covers in working men's clubs. Next, a punk band.

"It was the first time I'd had to invent my own bass-lines (laughs) but they were real three chord bashes so it wasn't that hard."

An octave divider is the only effect she uses ("to get as much bottom end as possible"). She elaborates: "I don't change settings at all on stage. I like a clean sound with lots of depth and from there I can get a lot of variety of sounds by using my fingers and a pick in different and subtle ways." A favoured technique is slapping the thumb right next to the bridge for hard, metallic sounds.

She uses a red 67ish Fender Precision — "just to be different" — with a Jazz Bass pick-up wired in stereo and Rotosound (roundwound) strings. Amplification is Carlsboro — M300 power amp, Stingray Pro Bass 400, two Pro Cab 2x15 400 and one Pro Cab 2x10 IH200. She's also had good results from Ampeg.

Sara detests the pyrotechnics of solo bassists. "I like bass to work with the drums, a simple, screwed-down rhythm. It shouldn't be flash. I'd play guitar if I was into that."

She wants to try the Stick Bass and admires the mastery Tony Levin has over the instrument — he plays it on the current Peter Gabriel album for example. "He has the ability to play anything, but he chooses to play very simple things. That impresses me."

The inevitable question.. .do you still get stick for Being A Girl. "I used to... still sometimes, especially if people think you're good. There aren't enough women in music yet for that to go totally unnoticed. But in this band — and our crew and friends — there is no sexism.

"When they asked me to join I think they wanted a woman in the band, to sort of prove they meant what they were saying about non-sexism." Andy: "We would rather the job went to a woman. We've had a woman manager, woman roadies. It's positive discrimination."

Gang of Four have stabilised now after a season of departures: first bassist Dave Allen, then drummer Hugo Burnham. For the tour, drummer Steve Goulding and two girl singers complete the line-up.

But the writing nucleus is Gill/King/Astrop, who start by building up rhythm tracks on a Fostex four-track, using Simmons drums. Usually they put down bass drum, hi-hat and snare, then bounce and add guitar parts. With two or three guitar parts dropped in and out at specific points they construct the song, and then write bass lines.

"Then it all gets refined," says Andy. "We get a Linndrum in (used on the album) and end up with quite sophisticated demos. With this album we came out with what we went in with apart from the strings, horns and various sound experiments."

Atmosphere is the signature of "Hard" — a rich but disciplined sound strategy. What next? Andy shrugs. "It will be different, but until I start working on it... I've got no idea."