“WE’LL probably be the supreme rulers of the entire world,” says Andrew Pettitt.

We are discussing where he sees himself and his band, Deptford’s The Shortwave Set, five years down the line.

Of course, the self-effecing, somewhat eccentric frontman doesn’t really believe that they will become some sort of one-band superpower. But he has plans made, just in case.

“It would be alright though. I’d probably change a few things but not much,” he says. “I think I’d go back to bartering — people should trade in chickens and bread and butter and stuff, I think it’s a more stable currency.”

So in bartering terms, how much would a copy of the band’s second album, Replica Sun Machine, be worth?

“Half a loaf of Hovis and a tin of baked beans,” says Pettitt. “So you’ve got a good solid meal of combined traditional and classic ingredients — beans on toast I believe they call it.”

Replica Sun Machine is a follow-up to 2005’s The Debt Collection, which super-producer danger Mouse named as his favourite album of the year, and which led to him offering to produce the band’s follow-up.

Working ata rate of one album every three years, I suggest, is steady progress.

“Steady is one word — appallingly slow is another,” says Pettitt. “We changed labels between albums and the whole Danger Mouse thing took its time for the whole scheduling thing to work out — obviously he’s not going to drop everything for a bunch of kids from South London.”

Were they worried that they might lose the momentum that they had build up after the first album?

“Nah, not really,” says Pettitt/ “We’re going to try and get the next album out a bit quicker next time, but we didn’t worry that everyone would forget about us because it’s not like the first album was all over Radio One anyway.

“It was a discerning collection of extremely well-knowing people who picked it up, so we assume that they have memories longer than your average goldfish.”

The Debt Collection was released to huge critical acclaim, but The Shortwave Set’s fanbase still remains a relatively small one. With so many bands having been catapulted to instant chart-topping stardom, is it something that the band feel bitter about?

“We want to be popular,” says Pettitt. “We do desire to have a larger audience, but it’s not something you can really allow to infiltrate your music otherwise you can start to hear. The sound of ambition is an ugly one.”

• The Shortwave Set play Manchester’s Dry Bar on November 27.