Och and Roll...

Skimming stones is in. Welcome to the deep-fried universe of Sparrow and the Workshop.

JILL O’Sullivan may be far from home, but is slowly getting used to her surroundings.

Having spent most of her life in Chicago, she admits her new home in Glasgow has taken some adjusting to.

“I like it,” she chirps, in her warm Mid-Western tones. “We’ve got deep fried Mars bars and rain. And the people are lovely – but some of them are hard to understand!

“Now the only time I get homesick, though, is when I tell a joke and absolutely no one laughs!”.

Jill is vocalist with oddly-named three-piece Sparrow and the Workshop, an achingly fresh alt-folk/rock/country/indie outfit who occupy that peculiar patch of hallowed ground earlier staked out by Seattle’s Fleet Foxes, with whom they have much in common.

Like the best rock histories, the story of how this unlikely threesome came together is a tale of happy coincidence and plain luck.

Performing in London as Dead Sparrow, sociology student Jill first met Welsh artist Nick Packer, who just happened to play the guitar. The two moved north, where they found themselves sharing a flat with Scots drummer Gregor Donaldson’s sister.

“It was Greg’s flat,” she explains. “He had tons of instruments and we had brought our own. We had tons in common and just clicked. We are all coming from the same perspective and to find each other was so exciting.

“I only came up to Scotland to have an easier life, but it has turned into something much bigger than I expected. And we are having so much fun.”

But how about that slightly dodgy name?

“Well, the first song I wrote was called Dead Sparrow,” she explains. "My grandfather hated sparrows and the song was about my dad who went out to shoot a couple down and how he freaked out when he realised what he’d done.

“I loved the story, and we came to call ourselves Dead Sparrow. People said it was depressing so we chose the new name.

“Sparrows are lovely little birds that often get overlooked, while the two guys are artists – so they are ‘the Workshop’.”

So does that make her ’the Sparrow’? "Kind of, but not really," she laughs.

Their sound comes from their less-than-conventional choice of instruments – including stripped-down drumkit, very white bass, extra-small acoustic guitar, yellow electric slide guitar, old French violin, and something called a crashbox.

Crashbox? “It’s a long strung metal sheet which if you smash it, sounds like a pistol going off,” she says with relish. “It’s weird. I’ve never seen another one.

“Then there’s Nick’s guitar – which is also a bass. It’s got two outputs and he has changed the fretboard.

“He refers to it as his ‘bass-tar’ and it has a pretty cool sound. My violin is also unusual. It’s a very old one and is really beautiful.

“I was classically trained, and I can’t play anything else. If I ever lost it I’d be heartbroken.”

And the songs are the products of all three fertile minds.

“I’ll write a skeleton,” she says, “That’s the basis for the song and the melody, but then everybody listens to it and elaborates.

“They then expand and it all comes together. We go in with no expectations and switch around the instruments, so the songs represent a mix of the three of us.

“They are folky and punky and also rock.”

Largely udiscovered, lovers of indie-alt-folk-rock, or whatever you care to call their ethereal, eclectic, electric sound, are steadily catching on, and recent weeks have seen the threesome selected for a string of live dates and festivals – which include Oxford’s 02 Academy on Tuesday, followed by the Glastonbury Festival.

“When we started we were happy to play our local folk joint,” says Jill.

“So this is incredible. I’m especially excited about coming to Oxford. Everybody wants to go to Oxford! I’m really thrilled by the prospect of getting into the libraries. I’m a bit of a nerd, and I love books. I have bad vision because I used to read under the covers as a kid.

“Maybe I could come and learn about sparrows?”

A self-declared geek she may be, but she has hidden talents.

“I’m a bit of a tom-boy,” she admits, “I like climbing trees and riding go-karts,” she says.

“And skimming stones.”

She’s not kidding. She is currently ranked third in the world in one of the weirdest sporting contests – the World Stone Skimming Championships, after picking up bronze at last year’s tournament on Easdale Island, near Oban, on the wild west coast of Scotland.

“We are bright eyed and bushy tailed, and excited about everything,” she grins.

“We just want to see how long we can go on having fun – and hopefully people will love what we do.”

l Sparrow and the Workshop play Oxford’s 02 Academy on Tuesday, supporting Broken Records.

Tickets are £7.50. Doors open at 7pm.

l The band play the Glastonbury Festival, in Somerset, which runs from June 26-28. Tickets have sold out.

l Single Devil Song is out now on 7” vinyl.

FACT: Tiring of being the only member of the band without facial hair, Jill is seriously considering donning a fake moustache for her Oxford and Glastonbury gigs. “Would it look weird?” she asks.