From small beginnings, Anstruther-based label Fence Records has deservedly grown in stature over the last decade or so, and now boasts a dedicated fanbase and an impressive roster of artists whilst very much retaining its down-to-earth DIY ethos. I caught up with label lynchpins Johnny Lynch and Kenny Anderson, otherwise known as The Pictish Trail and King Creosote for a chinwag just before they played a blinding gig as part of the Retreat! mini-festival in Edinburgh.

Not everything has run smoothly however. Anderson's last two albums as King Creosote, KC Rules OK and Bombshell were released through Warners offshoot 679, allowing him to reach a much wider audience than ever before. But the record industry being what it is, he's back to releasing his latest album through Fence and perhaps not coincidentally it has a more experimental side, not least the title - 'They Flock Like Vulcans to See Old Jupiter Eyes on His Home Craters'. Being back in control must be something of a relief though, given the hoops that major labels expect their artists to jump through to justify their investment? Kenny: "Well it is a relief because we're at the helm so we're as busy as we make ourselves. The difference is when you're with another label and they make you busy with all sorts of things that you never expected to have to do, but you've signed up to do it - and they make it quite awkward for you if you don't do it. All these things are there to help promote your album, but it's just amazing all the weird and wonderful things you end up doing."

As well as interminable interviews that take up entire days (The Skinny not included, obviously), this involved some major support tours, for the likes of KT Tunstall and Squeeze. And despite Tunstall's early links with the Fence clan, it was playing with Squeeze which paid off. Kenny: "Actually Squeeze made more sense, in an appreciation kind of thing because it was an older audience and it was a music buying audience, and we did better from sales of albums. Whereas a lot of Kate's audience were younger and had only heard two or three songs on the radio; it was like a different gig. As soon as she played 'Suddenly I See', the place just went bananas - even though it's not a stand-out in the set at all, but it's just one that everybody knows. So for us as a support band, can you imagine? We don't have anything even approaching her least known songs." Johnny however is keen to stress the glass-half-full side of the arrangement.  "It doesn't mean it was worthless because the end product of that was that for other Fence shows that we've done since then, it's brought in a different audience and it's made the audience that was there think of us as a real band instead of just 'some guys from Fife'" Kenny agrees that there are benefits to such compromises. "That's true, and also playing with Kate did get us that Jools Holland thing  - without a doubt that was what swung it for the producers."