Bournemouth boys Air Traffic have had a dramatic rise over the last 12 months.

They’ve been snapped up to EMI, as well as receiving playlist status on Radio One through Zane Lowe, Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq – the former awarding them ‘Hottest record in the world’ status on their debut release, Just Abuse Me.

They’ve also played a session at the world famous Maida Vale studios, been on Later…With Jools Holland, toured with Snow Patrol and they’ve been listed in the top ten ‘Sounds of 2007’ – the music industry’s list of who will make it big this year. It’s previously spawned the likes of Corinne Bailey Rae, 50 Cent and the Kaiser Chiefs amongst many others.

Bandidge met them at the end of 2006, with the band, completed by David Jordan (drums) and Jim Maddock (bass) very much still in shock after finding major support coming from Radio One.

With the major media attention from Radio One DJ’s especially, do you ever feel like you’ve ‘made it’ now, or do you still feel like you’ve still got a way to go?
Chris Wall (Vocals, Piano, Guitar): “I dunno, I think it’s just the start to be honest, the goal is – I guess just to get as big as you can to be honest, play to as many people as possible.  It doesn’t feel like we’ve made it at all, I mean, we’re just hearing it on the radio. It was really exciting the first time, but its still only the first tiny little step. I still think there’s lot of work to do.”

What would you say you bring to a music scene at the moment that is over-crowded with a lot of bands that sound the same?
Tom Pritchard (Guitar): “I think the main thing is that we’ve got a piano in our band, but we’re not using it in the way that [pauses] OK, there are elements of Coldplay in our songs, but its kinda more jumpy, more Supergrass with a twist, and another way of using a song with a piano.”
Chris: “It’s more classic sounding, it’s got more sensibility to it. I think they’re better constructed songs than what I hear on the radio these days, basically.”

What’s the best description you’ve heard of yourselves?
Chris: “What did NME say, something about covering Little Richard?!”

Supergrass covering Little Richard!
Chris: “Yeah, that’s it! I mean, it’s a bit different to everyone saying: “um, they sound like Keane”
Tom: “It’s a bit lazy to associate each other, so when they hear a piano, they say, “Oh, it must be like Keane”. Think about it a bit more first!”

You got your band name from picking up air traffic controls from an airport close by. Did you ever hear anything that you thought was rather odd?
Chris: “Not really! I mean, it would come through our amps, so we thought it was just the distortion pedals, but it wasn’t really clear. It was just this woman in a really high frequency; it could’ve been a scream!”
Tom: “It could’ve been a man!”
Chris: “It could’ve been a man, but I had a nice picture of her [pauses]. It did sound like a woman, but it could’ve been nothing and we’ve just been living a lie!”

How excited are you about your debut album?
Chris: “Well excited!”
Tom: “It’s been such a good laugh recording it too. The longest we’d spent in the recording studio before that was a weekend, but we got to stay in the studio for two months, so you get time to try out new stuff and develop your own songs, so it’s absolutely brilliant!”
Chris: “Looking at all the artwork too, and thinking of a name for it, the ‘complete package’ just comes together. It’s really good!”

Do you think the album is a fair representation of your live sound?
Chris: “Yeah, I think so; I think that’s what we tried to capture most of all, and getting some energy into it, really! It’s all recorded live, we haven’t layered and layered and layered, we’ve recorded the base of the track live, for example and then put the over-dub’s on top of it, so its not like its been pieced together like a pop song, for instance.
    "We’ve just tried to capture as much energy and dynamic as we can, really. Too often these days, people just try and compress everything down on every single track, so you just get this flat noise, because it’s going to come out loudest. It’s not what you want in a song, you want it to go up and down, so you keep the dynamic in there.”

What’s the difference in energy between touring, and playing in a studio?
Tom: “We don’t normally hold back, you have to be feeling pretty shitty not to – I wouldn’t want to go on stage and not be giving it my all, because you’d feel like you’ve let all the people down who have come to watch you play, so I just want to give them a really good show.
    "If I didn’t play my best that night, I would feel like I’ve let people down. It’s not like you can just tell them to come back tomorrow and see us again. It could ruin what people think of you.”

Is there anything on this your that you’ve learned so far that’s been a great help?
Chris: “I know how to open bottles, in pretty much every situation! That’s the best thing ever! Besides opening it with your teeth, obviously. We’ve had a few broken hands from trying to top it off – we can open bottles off bottles, off keys, lighters…”

Do you think you would still be ‘another band from Bournemouth’ if you haven’t taken the steps to move out to London?
Tom: “Totally. It seems in places like Bournemouth that bands do the same circuit of playing in Bournemouth and never seem to want to get themselves out of that…”
Chris: “Closed minds”
Tom: “Yeah. They keep doing the same gigs at the same venues. There are quite a few cool bands in Bournemouth, but you don’t need to go to London if you want to make it, it could be elsewhere.”

Do you have much time to think about what you’re doing on the tour, or is it pretty much one place after the other…
Chris: “Sometimes I think about it [pauses]. It’s quite frightening when you think about it too much really! Someone’s going to point out how well you’re doing eventually.”

What was the time frame from you being spotted to being signed?
Tom: “About six months, it was really, really quick. Everyone kept saying about how quick it was going, and we just thought it was normal, but everyone was going ‘This is way quicker than we had planned!’”
Chris: “We were first properly spotted on January 21st, and we were signed in May, so that’s five months.”
Tom: “I’m not very good with numbers!”

What should people know about Bournemouth that they might not already?
Tom: “It’s not just a place to retire in!”
Chris: “There’s more clubs per square metre than in London – Just on a considerably smaller scale!”
Tom: “There’s a big nightlife scene down there, so you always see on Friday, Saturday nights all the hen parties. It is a bit tacky as well, but it’s not all old grannies and busses with open tops on them going around. It’s good in the summer!