By Meg Jorsh

Last updated 11:42, Thursday, 31 July 2008

The Lake District has inspired people for centuries. Its mountains and trees make the perfect setting for creative brooding. But inspiration can take hold in many ways. While some may paint or write poetry, others might string sausages around their neck or throw custard pies at one another.

The Witch and the Robot fit squarely in both categories. Inspired by their Lake District roots, they sing ballads of sex and death, wearing feather boas and paper mache heads.

Singer Sam Hunt explains: “A lot of our work is to do with a re-imagining of the Lake District, not as a museum of dead history but as a living place.”

Inspired by the Romantic art movement, he adds: “We’re trying to recapture some of the revolutionary spirit that started it.”

The three-man band of 29-year-olds grew up in Gresham and Ambleside. The product of “good, solid South Lakes backgrounds,” onstage they use the names Venice (Sam), Mister GoodNite and Hen.

Sam says: “The names were given to us by the witch. She doesn’t actually exist, but she’s based in and around the central Lake District.”

He refuses to be drawn on the matter, adding: “It’s nothing to do with us.” Time to move on.

He’s more forthcoming on the origins of the group. “We’ve been in a band together for about 20 years. It was to get girls, I think. It’s very punk in Ambleside,” he says.

Their sound combines the silly with the sinister, its sultry moodiness tempered with exuberant stage antics. Songs include a tribute to St Thomas Aquinas and Cattle Calling, a ballad of agricultural murder.

“We have our own genre called ‘sex music’,” says Sam. “It’s got the energy of raw funk.”

The band have been inspired by Lakes artists like Kurt Schwitters, who died in Kendal. They worked with sculptor Josefina de Vasconcellos on a series of short films, before her death in 2005.

De Vasconcellos, who died aged 100, was a big influence for Sam. He adds: “In her lifetime, she was the only artist to be permanently exhibited in St Paul’s Cathedral.”

Despite their many years together, the band have no aspirations to stardom. They try to play only at special events, preferably within three miles of Ambleside.

“I think by calling your band The Witch and the Robot, you kind of exclude yourself from any ambitions of fame,” says Sam.

They previously organised a music festival at Ambleside village hall, called Fear of Mountains. Their club night of the same name was forced to close with the village’s Conservative Club.

Sam now hopes to start a new night in Manchester. But for the time being, he’s happy distributing music for free online.

“It’s all recorded in a bedroom,” he says. “You can’t eat it, so there shouldn’t be a price on it. Paying for music is all a big con.”

Right now, he can’t wait for Kendal Calling. “It’s a genuinely new festival for 2008. It’s growing each year, and it’s run by two people aged under 25,” he says.

“It doesn’t have any corporate sponsorship, and it’s a shining example of what things like this should be.”

And what can his audience expect? “Helium balloons, raw meat and filthy bass.”

If that sounds like your cup of tea, you can download their songs from website Last.fm.

The Witch and the Robot are playing Kendal Calling on Sunday. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/thewitchandtherobot