Different drummers

It's 11 minutes and 30 seconds into our interview, and I've just realised that the man on the other end of the line is not who I thought he was. 'I read,' I say to the voice that I've assumed belongs to The Drums frontman Jonathan Pierce, 'that Jacob said originality is unimportant. What do you think of that idea?' Jacob Graham is the band's guitarist. The response: 'Well, I am Jacob so I suppose I can add some insight to that.' 'Oh! Sorry! I'm talking to Jacob here? I thought I was talking to Jonny!' 'Oh yeah, we're actually in - I say studio, but it's our apartment kitchen. But yes.' And here Graham emits a muffled laugh. 'I think it was supposed to be Jonny but he just handed me the phone because he was busy or something.' He never thought to mention it. I never thought to ask. The question of originality is especially pertinent to The Drums, who'll be playing at Kitec in Kowloon Bay on May 26, because their music is so derivative. That's not a criticism. The band themselves proudly wear their influences - The Smiths and The Shangri-Las in particular - on their sleeves (well, as much as they can on tight-fitting T-shirts). And critics lob the observation at the band in admiration as often as disdain. After all, The Drums, an indie band that play bright three-minute pop songs with dark undertones, are polarising. As Graham says later, 'people either love us or really hate us'. So, the importance of originality. Is Graham taking the p***? 'When people would review us or talk about us they would say, 'It's the most unoriginal thing in the world',' says Graham. 'I don't know. I think that if you have your own personality and your own voice and you're just making simple pop songs, then that's the originality. 'Of course our song structure is the exact same as The Smiths, but The Smiths' song structures were the exact same as The Ramones or The Shangri-Las or any pop band throughout history. The difference is that you're a different person and you have your own voice and your own dreams and your own ideas.' Graham reckons musicians and critics these days ascribe too much importance to originality. 'When you're so concerned with trying to be the most original, then you lose the idea that you're trying to make something that is actually good and not fatiguing to the ear. Of course it's original if you beat yourself with a lead pipe but that doesn't mean it's pleasant to listen to.' Whatever you may think about The Drums, it's hard to argue they're not pleasant to listen to. They're not masters of their instruments - Graham still doesn't know what a guitar chord is, despite recording all the guitar parts on their first record - but they have a fine-tuned instinct for pop, churning out formulaic three-minute finger-clickers with instantly memorable hooks and catchy melodies. The genius in their music, though, is that it is done with a capricious moodiness that contradicts the chirpy cooing and hand-claps of its throwback ditties. Case in point: the Cure-ish Best Friend, whose instruments channel a Friday-I'm-In-Love frivolity but carry the lyrics 'You're my best friend /But then you died/When you were 23 /And I was 25'. This brilliant tension in part explains why the New York quartet have generated screeds of hype, getting love from all the usual suspects - NME, the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll, Rolling Stone, The New York Times - and, most notably, for a cred-bestowing indie act, Pitchfork, whose readers in 2009 voted the band 'best hope for 2010'. In April, New York magazine, to many the arbiter of cool, praised one of the band's 'oddly malevolent' live shows. Graham read that and was struck by the insight. 'It made a lot of sense because it's not something we've ever really talked about, but I've always had the mentality when we're playing shows that it's this strange struggle - especially in places like New York, because you feel like half the people watching you are there because they hate you.' At times, it felt as if the hype would swallow The Drums. For a band with just an EP (March 2010's Summertime!) and an album (self-titled, it was released on Island in June 2010), they sure were attracting a lot of attention. Lesser bands fall by the wayside under such expectation. Now that the band have toured the world and the indie world has turned its focus to the likes of Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes, that weight of anticipation has subsided a bit, allowing The Drums to get on with making their second album. It's just about in the can, and, despite the pressure and the major-label affiliation, they've gone about producing it in much the same way as they did for their first- as if they didn't really care. 'We've always had a really clear idea of what we wanted to do and what we want this band to be,' says Graham. 'So because of that it's very easy for us to disregard the hype to just do our thing ... When we made our first record we did it completely out of the public eye. It was pretty much recorded before we got anywhere. But we'd released our EP and that's what got us a lot of attention, so we were just sitting on this record and it was like we were so happy with the record that even though everyone was paying attention to us at that point we just released it as is because we were so proud of it and we knew that it was what we wanted to do.' Their mentality this time round is: 'If people liked us for when we weren't caring, we were just trying to please ourselves and make songs that really gratified ourselves, why would you change that formula?' So now they're facing the inevitable 'difficult second album'. What's it going to sound like? 'I feel like people who aren't terribly familiar with our music would probably say it sounds like our last record,' offers Graham, 'which to us is a good thing because we've always loved bands that are really consistent. 'We are doing some things that we didn't do on the first record. It's consistent enough that it's not going to put anybody off but it's fresh enough that it will still be exciting for people.' As The Drums have already proven, they don't need to reinvent The Smiths to get people jumping - they just need to give them a new haircut. The Drums Live in Hong Kong, May 26, 8pm, Rotunda 1, Kitec, 1 Trademart Drive, Kowloon Bay, HK$360 (advance), $400 (door). Inquiries: www.wegottickets.com