With another hugely successful album, 'Amazing Things', the phenomenon that is RUNRIG continues to astound many music biz observers. James Lewis talked to the band's drummer Iain Bayne.

"I think you would probably have to ask Donnie that himself. But so far, in all the years we've been in the band he's had absolutely no problems with any of the lyrics or any of the songs. His own point of view would concur heavily with the message that the songs are trying to put across."

It's quite unusual to have the percussionist and bass player writing the songs for a band - does it affect the sound of the band at all?

I think with songwriters it's difficult... You have to consider how the lads are going to interpret your songs. And for songwriters that must be a very frustrating process, because you know that in its barest form it's going to be changed when we get our hands on it. Lyrically, there's never any debate about it, as I said before. There's no problem that the two writing the songs are not actually singing them. I think that we're a six piece band and the sum total of our weaknesses is our strength, if you like."

The English and the Gaelic language songs seem to fit together seamlessly.

"Well Gaelic is as natural to Calum, Rory and Donnie as speaking English is to me. Therefore, there's nothing unusual in them thinking in Gaelic and writing a song in Gaelic. I think one of the greatest strengths of the band is that we're bilingual; it's as natural as breathing. The first album was all Gaelic, but obviously you want to communicate to as large an audience as possible so it would be unfeasible and unrealistic to release an album of all Gaelic songs at this stage of the band's career. That would be like someone who speaks Irish-Gaelic and somebody who speaks Welsh going into a corner and trying to have a conversation with each other. It wouldn't work."

Runrig's songs seem to express a sense of awe and wonder at things in creation, rather like Bruce Cockburn, for example.

"Calum and Rory write the songs. They draw heavily on their own personal experience when we're out touring or when they go home - the things that make them operate as human beings on a very basic level are the things that drive them to write songs, and are usually about things that are bigger than us, more important than us as human beings - and that's certainly a strong influence on the music. It's also a very strong celebration of life itself in an age when there are so many things going on around us that have to be tackled, confronted and considered on a world-wide basis - the environment, the fact that there are so many things that are going very, very wrong in the world. It's very easy to dwell on them and to ignore the fact that there's a lot to celebrate in life, at the same time not at the expense of not tackling the issues. There's lots around us, within us, that are really beautiful things, wonderful things and they're there to be enjoyed, celebrated."

It seems that Runrig are expressing a view that's quite unfashionable, with most groups at the moment seeming to focus on negative things - gangsta rap and grunge, for instance. We're probably the most unfashionable band going - we've no idea how to dress or look fashionable - that's not important to us. Image, well, it's nice to get dressed up to go on stage, obviously, but we go against the grain of the general music-biz type thing - we feel very uncomfortable with that as individuals."

You're doing the reverse of many bands, in fact - moving from your roots in a more rock direction. Do you think Runrig will ever do an 'Unplugged" album?

"That's the fashionable thing at the moment, to go 'Unplugged'. I mean, does that mean you take the plugs out of your amplifiers?"

With some bands that might not be such a bad idea!

"I know, I really wish they would. But there's always that side to our music anyway; there's always that gentler, more intimate side and I don't think we'd ever get rid of that."

How important are your folk roots to your music?

"I don't think it's ever been a folk influence as such, because we've never used folk instruments, we've never played traditional folk songs per se. I think it's the Celtic thing, the Gaelic, which gives rise to people thinking we play or have been influenced by folk music. I think the Gaelic thing - it's completely different from Lowlands Scottish folk music or Irish folk music. To write a rock song in Gaelic is just as feasible as writing an English or American rock song. It's just the background, the history of the band that makes people believe that we're folk influenced."

But Runrig always seems to have its earlier albums, at least, in the folk section.

"I know. I don't mind us being in the folk section as long as we're in the rock section as well. To ghetto-ise music is as bad a thing as to ignore it, really.

Runrig seems to have a fairly low profile South of the Border on comparison to your record-breaking status in Scotland.

"It's not really, by comparison. When you compare England to Scotland it does overshadow it a wee bit, but having said that we sell out everywhere we go in England. We have as much success as a lot of bands could wish for. It's just because we're so phenomenally successful in Scotland that most people think we're not successful down here."

Apparently Runrig is having a lot of success with non-English speaking countries.

"Yes, Germany and Denmark in particular. We did a German tour with 11 concerts and 35,000 people. The band's very successful in Europe, and we've been across to Canada and been very successful over there. Everywhere we go we seem to touch a nerve and communicate what we want to do with our music to new audiences, and we are very much an international thing. Although a lot of the songs are written from a Scottish perspective, they have a very international message; exploitation of people, the misuse and abuse of land ownership, things that whereas they're important in Scotland they're as important in Africa or America. Wherever we go in the world, the same things affect people in the same ways. Usually through abuse of power and forgetting, you know, this lack of human understanding left in the world."

But you don't seem to be a name that appears in the music papers very often. Do you avoid the publicity treadmill?

"That's because we're not trendy. People get embarrassed if they write nice things about Runrig - if you said you liked Runrig in a music paper you'd lose a lot of credibility. More fool them - it's sad and unnecessary. We've never been made by the media. We've gone out on the road, we've toured, we've created a really strong following in spite of the media. So fair enough - if you get good reviews, you get good reviews. If you get bad ones - everyone is entitled to say so, thank you very much. We will do what we want to do without having to rely on them."

So you don't pay much attention to your reviews?

"I mean, the only thing you have to worry about is the reaction of the audience. If they have enjoyed it, fine. If they haven't, well they haven't. There are very few occasions when we haven't succeeded in front of an audience, especially strange ones. You just rely on what you do best and that's the belief in your own ability to communicate with people.

So you are more than content to plough your own furrow?

"Yes, that's the secret of our success over the years, I think, because we have done things our own way. We very much control what we do, and maybe it's against the tide, maybe it's against the general way but it's worked for us and we are happy doing things that way. It's certainly not something we could ever give up, and if that means being untrendy then I'm very happy about that thank you very much."

How do you see Runrig developing - do you think there will be drastic changes to the band's sound?

"I think we're always trying, like everyone else, to improve on what we've done before, keeping sounds, creating new sounds, just really developing it even further. I don't think I could see us going through a rebirth thing."