Carole Nelson and Maria Walsh, the duo known as Zrazy, are discussing Ella Fitzgerald, and her influence on Maria's vocals. "When Maria and I started working together and she first sang the lyrics I'd written, her impulse was to come from the Ella Fitzgerald approach, where words are merely a vehicle for tone, where music matters more than meaning. We'd have wonderful fights about that kind of thing," says Carole.

Maria interjects. "That is true, but it was the purity of Ella's voice that first attracted me to her music and made me want to start singing around 1981, especially when I heard her Cole Porter album."

That particular album contains Night And Day, a song covered by Zrazy on their latest album, Private Wars. Covering songs originally recorded by the likes of Ella and Billie brings Zrazy back to their beginnings as a duo. They got together in the late 1980s, playing music they described at the time as "drawing together influences that range from American Soul to African rhythms and keyboard programming, mixed with tin whistles, bodhran, sax and flute." Before that, both were much in demand as jazz-based session musicians, recording with artists such as Christy Moore and Louis Stewart.

"Having those songs on the album is a way of acknowledging our roots, as jazz musicians operating out of Ireland, because let's face it, this country hasn't got a great history in terms of jazz," says Carole. "In fact, I probably introduced Maria to jazz in a broader sense because she always says she never even heard it on the radio, growing up in Tipperary. But jazz, particularly Georgie Fame, was very much part of my family life in London. The first thing I ever picked out on piano was The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. But it was mostly black music, soul, Motown, the blues that I loved and I found I was always listening to the sax, which is why I took up the instrument. Then I really got into jazz: Mingus, Monk, Miles Davis."

The other cover version on the album is God Bless The Child, another song of personal significance to Maria. "I identify with that so much because I experienced that typical land problem of rural Ireland," she explains. "My brother got the land, which is worth about £150,000 whereas I, as the daughter, got a cash dowry of £4,000. So I've always loved Billie's line `God bless the child who's got his own' although I change it to `her own'. "

Next up for discussion is the relative scarcity of Irish female instrumentalists, which leaves would-be musicians without role models. Nelson says she knew from the outset that choosing to play a saxophone was "an odd choice" for a female, but maybe not as odd as the response of certain males who, after gigs, would "come up and say, `That was great. Don't get me wrong, lady, but you play like a man. You've really got balls!' " she recalls, laughing.

"I always did want to play with a lot of physicality and power. I didn't want to be just lyrical, soft," she continues. "It does take a lot of energy. You can't be afraid of making this huge, assertive sound - that is exactly the kind of strength I want in my playing."

Maria cuts across: "I totally agree with that point about the lack of female instrumentalists," she says. "Especially in this country, which is really frustrating. When we tour the UK, Germany or the States we come across so many women playing instruments but women here, I think, lack confidence. As young girls they don't throw shapes in front of a mirror, playing air-guitar or imaginary sax, whereas boys are encouraged to do that.

Instead, you have the female singer-songwriter school, which is rampant and, to me, totally boring - musically, lyrically, politically, in every sense. It drives me mad to see so many women reduced to just that. Carole and I were both lucky in that we were tomboys growing up, which was obviously liberating and allowed us to be assertive, get into the rough-and-tumble with the boys and not play the stereotypical female role." "That's why I was delighted when Sinead O'Connor, a woman with a hard edge, came on the scene here," Carole joins in. "I adore Mary Coughlan but I agree with Maria; most of the other female vocalists in Ireland are boring, soft-focused, soft-centred, offend nobody and say nothing. Some of the male vocalists are even beginning to sound the same."

Maria Walsh also believes that soft-centred, in this context, can be seen as sexless, that most major Irish female acts "sing from the neck up". This, she happily points out, is hardly a criticism that could be levelled at Zrazy, particularly their new album - this reviewer said it "is so low-down and dirty it sounds like it was recorded in bed".

Maria insists that sexiness is central to the music of Zrazy; and that the scarcity of Irish female musicians exploring that is "just as limiting" as the scarcity of female instrumentalists. "I blame the Catholic Church in terms of the way it oppresses people's sexuality, particularly women," she says. "Too many of us just aren't in touch with our own, core energy at that level, aren't in touch with our bodies. But I don't feel that way. You mentioned `honey dripping' as I sing and that is exactly what I want people to imagine. I am, and I feel like a sensual being; my vocal style is as physical and animal as Carole's sax playing!"

Carole's lyrics really do seem to drip from Maria's lips, especially in songs of longing such as Walking On Air and Ecstasy. Other lyrics are dipped as much in venom as honey: Remember (That You Did It First With Me). "I wasn't sure if that song would end up chilling or as pure pathos," smiles Carole. "Because when the narrator says `I'm not looking for revenge', the fact that she even uses the word `revenge' brings to mind Fatal Attraction and the whole jilted lover scenario: you know she could be thinking of revenge. In fact, I decided to tone down that lyric, because more and more when I'm writing , I realise it is better to hold back rather than lay everything out there on the line."

"Actually, I think the song Private Wars is quite magnificent, lyrically," Maria suggests. "And I love singing it. In fact, if this doesn't sound too smug, I am totally satisfied with every track on this album, including my vocals. Yet to go back to what we talked about at the beginning, I think I do tune into these songs at a more physical, sensual and even subconscious level rather than intellectually. There is, after all, a lot more to music than having an intellectual relationship with lyrics, such as having a primal connection. And that, to me, is what Private Wars is all about."

Private Wars is on the Alfi label.