You guys have been touring a lot for the past two years, how's life on the road?
It's a life that most people don't actually understand. I don't think that we really understood what we were getting into when we first started this band. When you join a band, you are essentially being married to the other members of your band and you see them constantly if you are on the road as much as we have been and will be. You make decisions with them, get angry with them, enjoy good times together, and everything in-between. There have been some real ups and some real downs and I think what really keeps us going are the kids who show up to our shows. We feel pretty lucky to have such a committed group of people turn up to our shows and listening to our records.

Did you feel any pressure being named as NME band of 2010?
You know, I think we feel more pressure now as we are about to finish our second album, but not much. We were too naive to feel any pressure from anyone or anything on the first album. We had the debut album essentially finished before any of the press even knew who we were, and we loved the album and had this mindset to not care what anyone else thought at all. I really love that about our band. Connor and Jacob and I are probably the most bullheaded people you'll ever meet when it comes to making a compromise. We just know what sounds good to us, and if that isnt good enough for anyone else, then, they can go cry in their pillow, I suppose.

Some say surf rock, some say post punk. How would you describe your sound?
I think we are just a pop band, through and through. We are finishing our second album this week and believe me, I don't think anyone will call us a surf band after this one is out. I always found it funny how lazy journalists would dub us a surf band because we have one song out of about forty that mentions surfing. We are just pop. We don't care if people call us indie, or mainstream, or whatever. We do want to be considered pop, because as a band our greatest passion is a perfect pop song and a strong pop concept.

Who inspires you musicially?
The Wake, The Shangri-Las, Orange Juice, Beat Happening, China Crisis, Diruti Column, The Supremes, Wham.

In your opinon, what makes good indie pop?
I don't know what makes something indie, and don't really care. I mean, the term indie... what does it mean anymore? It used to mean how something was done without lots of money, set apart, etc. Now it is more of a label you put on anything that has reverb on it or something like that. We never set out to be indie, we just made our music 100% independently from anyone else and with no money and because we didn't know what we were doing and had no one to fund us or hold our hands during the creative process, we ended up with a sound that we are happy with. I know that would not have happened had anyone else been brought in to make this record with us.

This will be your debut show here in Bangkok, what are you looking forward to the most?
We are very excited to be coming to Bangkok. It is one of those places that seems like a dream to me, and I am just grateful to be able to play there finally. I'm hoping to meet a fan who will take me to eat some really good local food.

What's next for you guys? When can we expect to hear the new album?
It's just a collection of more sad pop songs, a little more serious than the first. I think the first album was full of "concepts" rather than just being real as far as what I am saying. Things get much more personal and much more severe. It's definitely our dark record.

Catch The Drums in their full fantastic glory at Exclusive Party The Drums Live in Bangkok on May 24, 8pm. Tickets are B800 and are now on sale at www.thaiticketmajor.com. Hurry up as only 800 tickets are available!