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Short tracks make DJs and presenters happy. It means they can pop them just before the news, on the hour.

However, that's not the reason Nephu Huzzband have made such a short single. Vocalist Tom Bentley says:

"We wrote it mentally on a train to London without any instruments. We were going to play it [that] night but we bottled it."

How did the band get together?

We all met at school a few years back. Tom, Rob and Jamie were all in the same year whilst Adam was in the year below.

It just started with Rob and Tom sort of hi-jacking other people’s guitars and drums while they were practicing in the music rooms at lunch times.

Jamie joined a few months after and we jammed a lot of stuff together initially as a three-piece until we asked Adam to join us.

Who are your influences (music or otherwise)?

Our influences are wide and varied both collectively and individually, which is really apparent in a lot of our material.

The common ground we meet on in a musical sense centres around bands such as …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Q And Not U, At The Drive-In, Joy Division, Death From Above 1979 and Sonic Youth.Ìý

We sound a bit like...

We get a lot of press articles who also liken us to The Cure, mainly because of Tom’s vocal style.

Additionally they seem to pick up on our 80s influences and the post-punk attitude to our songs, which are really some of the main elements to our music.

We were also recently described as sounding like ‘painfully brilliant gawky underdogs’ by the NME, which is one way of looking at it, but find out for yourselves!

Who would be a dream band member and why?

Rob & Jamie – John Coltrane... one of the master saxophonists and just amazing to listen to. He’d bring a whole new twist to our music.

Tom- Frank Zappa… purely for the musicality and the fact that you could never possibly get bored of him! You just wouldn’t know what he’s going to do next.

Adam – Omar Rodriguez-Lopez… an intense guitarist. I’d love to have even the glimpse of an opportunity to work with him.

Does Nottingham offer you enough opportunities?

On the Nottingham scene we’ve been really fortunate with getting gigs and being promoted or recommended for such events so we’ve had a lot of great opportunities over the past year or two.

There’s a fair few people in the right places who we’re friends with and who are into our music which has helped us a lot.

All in all, we’ve been given a lot of opportunities by the people who do have an interest in the local scene and for that we a very thankful to them all.

What was your best gig and why?

We recently played a live set as part of a TV pilot called ‘the unsigned chart’ at the rhythm factory in London.

It was just a great venue and the place was packed out with people, a lot of whom were going mental after the first song!

Although it seems like a bit of a cliché, it gives you the biggest buzz when people are dancing and jumping around to your songs.

To top it off we were shouted back on for an encore, live on air.

Who are the most influential figures in your life?

Rob – Musically, my drumming’s been influenced a lot by Joy Division and a New Zealand band called Die! Die! Die!

Adam – As a guitarist it would have to be, again, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. I get a lot of inspiration from him and I love what he does with a guitar.

Real ale anyone?

Jamie – Peter Hook, because I love his bass playing.

Tom – Dad, gave me an incentive to start writing songs from an early age, and bought me my first guitar

Best band in Notts and why? (Apart from you).

The Recovery are a great band. We’ve played with them a couple of times and they’re just a good bunch of lads who make great music.

Our music differs from theirs but it has this really dark and intense edge to it which no one else in Nottingham really produces. Their debut EP is well worth a listen as well.

Lovvers, who we played with once, are also making a really big impact at the moment, again making a really unique sound not just on a Nottingham scale but a national scale too.

What are you listening to at the moment?

At the moment we’re really into The Mars Volta who are making some really incredible music.

If anyone likes to venture into the weird and wonderful side of things with their music they should definitely pick up one or two of their albums.

Other than that Foals are doing some really good stuff too.

In a fire, which album would be the first you would rescue?

Rob - Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits

Tom - …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Madonna

Jamie -Ìý At the Drive-in – Relationship of Command

Adam - The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath

What's the perfect night-out in Nottingham?

Real Ale pubs! The music aside, we’re probably also a really unique group in the sense that we prefer the taste of quality ale!

There are a lot of places that serve them as well nowadays which is good, like The Lincolnshire Poacher, The Cock & Hoop, Ye Old Trippe etc. IPA’s and London Pride are amongst our favourites.

Other than that we hang out a lot in Rescue Rooms and The Bodega Social which are good for having a drink and a dance or whatever you want to do on your Saturday night.