Front man Mikelangelo says playing the National is a pleasure. "Folk festivals in general I find a pleasure, but the National has got its own charm," he says.

Ever the performer, Mikelangelo says he enjoys giving the audience a performance, even before the show has begun.

"Because you do sound check in front of people … its almost become another part of the show," he says. "You'll often play 40 minutes, maybe 50 minutes at most for a long show, and I've found our set-up time becomes a solid addition, where we're just speaking into the microphones in character and making up stuff as we go."

This practice speaks of an important part of who the Black Sea Gentlemen are. While the music is vital, so too are the characters each musician inhabits on stage.

"We work more in theatres or in festivals that have a very open idea of what music can be," Mikelangelo says. "Part of the success of the Black Sea Gentlemen is in the songs, but also in the world that we create on stage. And that's always been present from the very beginnings. It was something that at first we didn't set out to do, we just naturally started building this theatrical world on stage in our first show. And as we played in theatres and our characters started forming, we realised that was something that we'd have to shape more."

It is a concept that has interested all members of the band. "I love the fact that every member of the band has been engaged creatively and intellectually with it to the degree that they've built these alter ego personas that ring true within the group," Mikelangelo says. "To the degree that Rufino our violinist now has his own band, Rufino and the Coconuts, and that's all built out of his time spent when we had to flee Europe, and he ended up on a banana boat to Haiti and formed his own voodoo pop band."

Along with these seasoned characters, featured in the band's National performance will be songs from a new EP, The Alpine Way, created in conjunction with arts and social-justice company Big hART.

"We've been recording songs for a new album, which have been based on work we've been doing in the Snowy Mountains over the last year," Mikelangelo says. Having chatted to people who worked on the Snowy scheme, looking into the "hot bed of culture on the flip side of all the hard work that was going on," the new songs delve into what Mikelangelo calls the "glory days of the huge migrant push" that came from post World War II Eastern Europe out to Australia.

"Over 100,000 men came out to work on the scheme, so it was the birth of multiculturalism in Australia," he says.

When not performing or promoting his new EP, Mikelangelo will be spending time serenading the third lucky winner of the festival's Ultimate Tent Concert series.

"I've already started a strict gym workout," Mikelangelo says of his preparations for the intimate show. "They are going to be seeing me really close up without make-up, so it's important I'm looking my best."

MIKELANGELO AND THE BLACK SEA GENTLEMEN

Where: National Folk Festival, Exhibition Park

When: April 2-6

Tickets: Visit folkfestival.org.au/tickets or call 02 6242 5944