Hince, who, if it wasn't for his estuary English, would be a dead ringer for Lou Reed circa the Velvet Underground, forewarns me that he had no sleep last night. "We played a gig in Paris, got in around 5am and there was no electricity in my hotel room. But I needed to charge my phone," he says as if that were a perfectly reasonable explanation. Mosshart, on the other hand, who appears messed up and edgy when performing, is fresh-faced and smiling broadly.
Until last year, being a Kills fan was meaningless to all but a small group in the know. However, since Hince started dating one of the planet's most photographed women, the band has become tabloid fodder - "cartoons", as Hince says. "It's pretty much all lies," he adds of the stories about him. "I'm engaged, I'm married, I'm divorced, I hate [the Mighty Boosh comedian] Noel Fielding - where the fuck has that come from? I bought Kate a Fabergé egg, I wrote a song for her and put it in a frame and gave it to her for her birthday, we danced on Jim Morrison's grave, we had a massive orgy at the Dorchester and the soundtrack was No Wow [the Kills' second album] ..."
"All the members of the Kills were really angry," adds Mosshart.
"Yeah, like the whole band was really pissed off with me because I was spending too much time with Kate," says Hince, riled because whoever wrote this must have been unaware that the Kills has only two members. Adding insult to injury, the Sun's gossip columnist has started referring to Moss and Hince as "Mince".
Formed in 2000 after months of sending unfinished songs to each other across the Atlantic (Mosshart is from Florida and Hince is a Londoner, although originally from Berkshire), the Kills were part of the same garage rock movement as the White Stripes, the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The band signed to indie label Domino, home to Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys. Their songs, in which the pair act out violent lovers' tiffs and seedy scenes that evoke Warhol-era New York, are constructed around a drum machine, Hince's fractious guitar riffs and Mosshart's yowling of phrases such as "I hate, the way you love". Peppered with scratchy samples of telephone dialling tones and coughing fits, their work provides "a snapshot of an experience", says Hince.
Midnight Boom is a mild departure, featuring hip-hop-inspired beats. Is it important to them that people dance to their music? "People have never really danced at a Kills show," says Hince. "They just stare at us," says Alison. "I get the feeling," Hince adds, "that watching us, people are sort of, uh, holding their breath a bit, crossing their fingers, like [they're witnessing] someone running down a hill, you know, trying not to fall over. We just ... " " ... hang in by a thread," Mosshart finishes his sentence, laughing.
And has the mainstream coverage brought new audiences? "I don't know," says Hince. "We've got lots more people. We're playing, at least in America, noticeably bigger venues. On a good day I like to think it's about the fact that we made a great record but it might be something more cynical and stupid." Has it detracted from the music? Hince sighs. "I don't know, does it take away some cred? That's for other people to decide - I never afforded myself any cred anyway. If anyone else has, then it's up to them to take it away or do whatever they want."
The Kills's three albums have received mixed reviews (the Guardian panned Midnight Boom). All cheekbones and snake hips, they have often been dismissed as a "fashion band" - the kind of people who wear sunglasses indoors. Their critics accuse them of being all style and no substance. "I still prefer that over all substance and no style," quips Hince. I point out that Mosshart was, just a moment ago, wearing her RayBans inside the pub. "It was sunny," she says, "I needed to see your eyes." This is, in fairness, true.
"I still don't understand what 'too cool for school' [a stock Kills criticism] means. That presupposes that the aim is to be not cool enough for school," says Hince, 38. "We're too old for school," says Mosshart, 29, with an air of finality.
The pair use stage names - Hotel and VV - which add to the impression that they are an art-rock version of Spinal Tap. "We were scraping together songs in my bedroom," says Hince, shuffling his cigarette packet. "I was on the dole ... we were drunk and thought it was an empty gesture because no one would ever hear our band. Now, six years later ... "
"I was like: you have one second to name me," says Mosshart.
"We were trying to outdo each other with stupid names," say Hince.
In fact, they are both impressively well read. Midnight Boom is a reference from Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans. "I've just finished three Richard Brautigan books," says Mosshart. "Jefferson [Hack, the magazine editor, who has a daughter with Kate Moss and also used to date Mosshart] gave me a Brautigan book. And I was just re-reading some Truman Capote short stories. I'm also reading a Captain Beefheart biography."
"I've got that," says Hince.
"I know you do but I can't find it because our house is so messy," says Mosshart.
They refer to their nearby home as "Red Meat Heart". I picture it full of ancient synthesisers, wires everywhere. "There's lots of gear in there," says Mosshart, "but it's more where we have our bedrooms, and do our art - drawing, painting, collage, photography."
If they weren't in the Kills, what would they be doing? They look bemused. "One thing I don't do enough of now is paint, so I'd paint more," offers Mosshart. "I always wanted to be a playwright," says Hince. "That's what I did my degree in. When I graduated I wrote a couple of plays which were on at Edinburgh Fringe festival but I got sidetracked - I was in a band and we got signed." It takes some pressing for Hince to divulge details about the plays. "One was called Danish," he says sheepishly, "but it was kind of a modern interpretation of ... oh, I can't say ... well, it was loosely based around Hamlet but it was written in cockney rhyming slang."
I leave Hince and Mosshart discussing where they intend to go for dinner and how they plan to spend an upcoming week off - Mosshart at a wedding back in Florida while Hince is heading to Istanbul for a "bit of sun. My bird's working out there, so I'll wander around the markets and then we'll have the rest of the week off."
Before then, Hince will also fit in Moss's daughter Lila's school sports day, and both Kills are looking forward to viewing a new exhibition by Moss's former boyfriend, artist Jake Chapman and his brother Dinos. I ask Hince if there's any truth in reports that the Chapmans are devising some artwork for Moss and Hince's September wedding, forgetting momentarily that he earlier denied being engaged. "Ah, but was it a double bluff though? Am I? Ooh, ooh," he says, hooting at the ridiculousness of it all.
· The Kills' new single, Last Day of Magic, is out now. They play Glastonbury on Friday and The Mighty Boosh festival July 5.
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