Charlotte Hatherley: We've been playing with Dashboard Confessional for about two weeks now.

EL: How do you like it?

CH: It's great, it's going really well. It's kind of a perfect crowd, really.

EL: How was it touring with Coldplay? I saw you at Jones Beach.

CH: Fantastic. They're really amazing, lovely guys. They're friends of ours from back home.

EL: Any plans of touring together again?

CH: Talk of January, but I don't think it's going to happen. I'm not sure. It's great how huge they are, it's fantastic. Very proud of them!

EL: How did you wind up joining the band?

CH: Well the guys moved to London. They're Irish. I was in a London-based band. We met through friends. It was Tim really, we started hanging out. One of my friends told him that "Charlotte plays guitar" and that he should check us out. Tim asked me to join; it was within a week.

EL: All the boys love you!

CH: (laughing) All the girls love me as well!

EL: Why do you play barefoot? I mean, everyone is always like, "Damn! That girl is so cool!"

CH: (laughing) I started playing barefoot because it was summer, and we were outside and stuff. I don't know really. I find it comfortable. Makes it feel like you're in a small room or something. And Patti Smith played barefoot.

EL: Ah! Which brings me to the question of what your influences are.

CH: David Bowie. PJ Harvey, I like a lot. My Bloody Valentine. The Pixies.

EL: At the very moment, what are your top five favourite CD's?

CH: Oh my god! PJ Harvey Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. Her last album was one of my favourites. Flaming Lips. All is Dream, Mercury Rev. I need to get new ones in here. David Bowie. He's a really cool guy.

EL: So you really love David Bowie! Have you met him?

CH: Yeah, we did the Area 2 tour. And I got to meet him, very briefly, but yeah, he's very cool. And there's a band called Electric Soft Parade. They're really great.

EL: If you could resurrect dead bands or whatever, what would be your ideal line up? Who would you play with?

CH: I think the Pixies. The Replacements

EL: I love them!

CH: David Bowie, of course. David Bowie in his earlier stages, like the late 70's, early 80's. The scary monsters, diamond dog period. Elvis. (giggles) And Prince.

EL: You guys have been labeled numerous things by critics and publicists, from pop punk, alternative rock, Britpop. How would you want to reply to that?

CH: It's all pretty cool. It's hard to pin us down, really. I think that the band being from Northern Ireland, the whole Britpop thing, not really. We weren't really influenced by the British thing. Britpop is very English. I think the pop punk is pretty accurate.

EL: What I've noticed is that you guys have been playing your songs live faster. Is there a reason behind that?

CH: I know, I know. It's probably just nervous energy. I'm like, what the fuck! We have to mellow ourselves out on stage.

EL: But the audience really reacts to all of that energy.

CH: And then we get off of their vibe, so we get all spazzing out.

EL: Any crazy tour stories? Stalkers?

CH: Quite a few. There's this Italian fan, she was an ex-pole vault champion. She would follow us around, and she kind of got involved in our bassist Mark's hotel videos. All kind of weird séance stuff, it kept getting weirder and weirder. And then we did a small tour in remote parts of the UK and a few fans quit their jobs and followed us around. Small fishing villages. We'd get them into the dressing room after the gigs. They were very sweet and polite.

EL: People were saying that Ash fell off, that you had "problems," is there anything you'd like to say to rebut that?

CH: The boys had toured non-stop for a few years, and that's when I joined, and there was a lot of fall out, they were a little burned out. Jaded. They were very young. By the time I joined, they were kind of aware that they needed a lot of time off to re-energize. So we did Nu-Clear Sounds, and that wasn't very commercially successful but we toured an extraordinary amount, and the same thing happened. I think a lot of people who crossed us out will see us come back, unlike the other so-called Britpop bands, who've died a death. We had our share of downpoints but we're doing really amazing. We were down to our last grand away from bankruptcy so we really feel like the phoenix has risen from the ashes. We feel really lucky. That's why we work so hard.

EL: What's up with the big album delay for Free All Angels? It dropped over a year ago everywhere else but is finally getting the push here stateside.

CH: We were signed to DreamWorks for Free All Angels at the time it was released in the UK and then they dropped us. It did really well everywhere else, but we didn't have an American deal. It worked out though. We toured the UK and Europe, Japan, Australia, everywhere. And the luckily, we managed to get a new American deal with a company called Connector Records.

EL: Where is your favourite place to play?

CH: Australia, because it's so laid-back and so beautiful. And we get a lot of time off. We did a tour called Big Day Out for three weeks, all around the coastline: Marilyn Manson, Sparklehorse, Hole, we all fly together and stay in the same hotel. One gig, two days off, one gig, two days off. Party central. We had a week in Sydney and spent the time at the beach. Hanging out with bands and parties every night. Yeah, it was amazing.

EL: If you guys were in a bar fight with Oasis, who do you think would win?

CH: All of Oasis? I don't fancy our chances much. But I think we got our drummer, Rick, he might be able to talk us out of that situation.

EL: So it might be a draw?

CH: It might be a draw.

EL: But you can fight dirty! Beer bottles to the back of the head!

CH: But they're from Manchester! My boys are from Northern Ireland!

EL: What does the word emo mean to you?

CH: (laughing, and in a teary voice): Why, oh why did she leave me? Why did she leave me?