With a band like Zeigeist - whose act is more like didactic theatre than gig, abounding in buckets of fake blood pouring from the ceiling like the final reels of Carrie, elaborate Count Dracula Victoriana costumes with billowing fabrics, capes that descend across the entire stage and hooded, masked figures forever looming in the background - it comes as no surprise that, rather than a list of everyman bands, their inspiration lies elsewhere. Matthew Barney, Comme des Garçons, Peter Greenaway, Andy Warhol and Alexander McQueen all get a nod. And Lynch? "Oh we love David Lynch, he is very special to us," says singer Mattias Brun, touching his maroon fingers to a carefully-tapered fringe before noticing the sticky fake blood on them and pulling away sharpish so as not to stain his dirty blonde mane an unseemly sunburnt flesh colour.

And the Lynch influence certainly shows. The opening credits of Zeigeist's The Jade Motel tour are full of intriguing yet sinister characters, over-the-top sets and deathly black comedy asides. The Swedish trio's live act is just that, an act. A play. An aesthete's feast. But ask Mattias to discuss Zeigeist's performance at length, and he is lost for words. How do you explain an enigma? "See us live and it will become obvious. There is no other way to explain Zeigeist," he laughs. "For those who don't know about us: we are a creative project with music performed with visual elements as a fundament. We're best described as 'a degenerated children's party with paint, blood, feathers and confetti, mixed with haute couture, video projections, strobes and punchy pop'. But that doesn't even begin to explain it."