The Drums

Drenched in reverb, sunny harmonies and delicate heartbreak, The Drums lit up 2010 with a brand of jangling indie dream pop that soon had the critics swooning. United by a love of 1980s synths, childhood friends Jonathan Pierce and Jacob Graham turned their backs on electro, taught themselves guitar, and quickly had a set of songs that captured a hazy, first-day-of-summer mood of wide-eyed optimism. Moving to New York from Florida, drummer Conor Hanwick and guitarist Adam Kessler completed the band, before they released debut EP Summertime! (2009) through the Moshi Moshi label. Buoyed by growing industry hype and blogosphere buzz, their first UK show was attended by Boy George and they featured in the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll, NME mag's tips for the year and on Pitchfork Readers' list of "ones to watch". The wave of interest was backed up by support slots with Florence and the Machine, before the re-release of the gloriously catchy, whistle-happy single Let's Go Surfing sent debut album The Drums (2010) to Number 16 in the UK, driven by an avalanche of good reviews. With a growing list of celebrity fans - including The Smiths members Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke - the band went on to record with one of their heroes, Edwyn Collins, on his album Losing Sleep (2010).

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