The Strypes: "Probably the greatest moment of it all was actually, officially leaving school." by Ella Walker of the Cambridge News

These boys combine sharp suits and seriously awesome rock & roll. Ella Walker talks to The Strypes drummer Evan Walsh ahead of their Cambridge Junction gig

The two things everyone’s saying about The Strypes are a) they play rock & roll, and b) they look about 12.

Both are true, but the first doesn’t quite do them justice, and the second? Well, they’re getting pretty sick of people going on about it.

“We think it’s quite strange that people make such a big deal out of a young rock band,” says drummer Evan Walsh, his soft Irish accent lilting with quiet bemusement. “It’s the kind of thing young people do: young lads form bands. It just happens that our band has got quite a good bit of attention.”

To be fair “a good bit of attention” is something of an understatement, and the suited, booted and brilliantly fringed four-some (don’t go calling them a ‘boyband’, they really don’t like it), are clean shaven and aged 16-18, but why is everyone so surprised by that?

“Rock & roll is for young people, it was invented in the 50s,” says Evan. “When it became popular, it was teenager music, it was all about the youthful energy and the same goes for punk rock. When it came about it was all about teenagers having their own thing. That’s what it’s all about. We think it’s just normal that a band of people our age should be wanting to play guitars and make a lot of noise.”

Hailing from Cavan, Ireland, Evan’s band mates are frontman Ross Farrelly (who pairs raw, angsty vocals with a worrying penchant for wearing sunglasses indoors), guitarist Josh McClorey and bassist Pete O’Hanlon.

Josh, Pete and Evan have been friends since they were toddlers and grew up surrounded by parents with musical backgrounds of their own (“There was always instruments around,”). Together they stumbled across Ross singing at a local gig four years ago, “quite liked his voice,” and invited him to jam with them: “It went from there, from gigging around our hometown and beyond.”

‘Beyond’ entailed a self-produced EP of covers, Young, Gifted & Blues, getting signed to Elton John’s label, Rocket Music Management, making a switch to Mercury Records in 2012 and now their first headline UK tour, including a stop at Cambridge Junction. Not only that, their stunning debut album, Snapshot, reached Number 5 in the UK charts and Number 2 in Ireland in September (“It went a lot better than any of us even thought about. We would have been happy with anything.”)

Thrashing out confident, revved up, ballsy rock & roll music, roughly hatched in with old school rhythm and blues – “It’s totally unpretentious,” says Evan. “It is what it is,” – singles Blue Collar Jane and Hometown Girls shudder jitteringly through your limbs with pent up teenage patter while album tracks I Can Tell and What A Shame skittishly yell, yelp and punch right through you.

Cored by blazing guitar chords that rip the record jauntily and brilliantly apart, there’s a base layer provided by the early American and English R&B the group are inspired by – and can reverentially reel off. From Dr Feelgood, The Yardbirds, Rockpile and fledgling Rolling Stones, to Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and punk bands The Ramones and The Overtones, it’s all in there; a blueprint overlaid by their own electric ‘noise’.

But that, and the fact they’re kitted out oh-so-smartly in sharp skinny ties and trousers that smack of their 50s and 60s icons, also means they often get chucked on the ‘retro’ pile. Does that bother them? “We can’t be nostalgic for an era we weren’t born in,” says Evan thoughtfully. “I think it shouldn’t matter.”

They can’t deny they do nod – stylistically and musically – to their idols though. “That’s what’s happened throughout the decades; of music, of bands, of generations of bands. Everyone’s just nicking stuff from each other,” he says with a rueful laugh. “Everyone’s basically borrowing everyone else’s ideas.

“[But] because it’s being made now, today, it sounds like it’s made today.”

It explains why live, the crowd they pull in merges students and teenagers at the front with your original rock & roll kids towards the back. On any given night, Elton, Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher or Miles Kane might turn up too, and then of course, they did just tour with Arctic Monkeys.

“It was great, it was our first experience of that sort of proper tour – tour in inverted commas. Before that we’d just been doing this big rambling series of gigs,” he says. “They’re all incredibly normal, down to earth lads – and it couldn’t have been a more sedate, monotonous tour at the same time.”

They take it seriously, this life in a band lark. Sincere, measured and articulate, Evan comes across more laid-back than anything. Except, that is, when I tell him the NME tipped them as the number one band to watch this year, but also said in their album review “occasionally, they sound a little bit like McFly.”

“I think that’s just f*****g b*******s to be honest,” he spits with a laugh. “I don’t think it sounds anything like McFly. I think that’s a pretty pathetic observation to make because, I mean, it’s purely inaccurate if anything.”

But generally, they seem like a grounded bunch of lads, which should come in handy considering the attention they’re grabbing and the fact it hasn’t quite crashed down on them how big they could be (Elton is a fan people).

They’re just taking it in their slickly booted stride: “It hasn’t been too much of a shock really just because it’s all been quite gradual in terms of the level it’s been to now. It’s still pretty small in the grand scheme of things,” Evan argues. “People have asked us before, do you have that moment where you look at each other and go, ‘God, is this all happening?’ And you don’t. It just doesn’t happen like that.”

He adds wryly: “Probably the greatest moment of it all was actually, officially leaving school. We’ve quickly got used to the notion of okay, we’re doing it full time now.”

The most drastic change in their lives, other than the distinct lack of homework, has been travelling and being away from home (“We all get kinda quite homesick after a while,”). Hence why a homecoming gig packed with friends and family at a local bar over the summer – not having a pub lunch with Elton, playing Glastonbury or hanging out with Arctic Monkeys mind – has been the highlight so far. “The place was just mental, it was really amazing fun,” Evan buzzes. “Because of the sheer energy of that, the hometown energy, it just felt great.”

Has he got a favourite track to perform live? “It was one of the first British New Wave singles and it was a song I heard a lot growing up,” he says, citing Heart of the City, a 70s Nick Lowe song. “We started covering it in the set and do it towards the end to the point that the audience are all really sweaty and heaving. It’s a great moment; it’s a real kind of fists in the air type song.”

When we speak the band is at home, gearing up for their first ever trip to America, followed by the tour and then, after that? “It all gets a bit hazy,” Evan admits. So what would they be doing if things hadn’t taken off like this?

“The band would still be going, we’d all still be playing,” he says matter-of-factly. “The only reason we really do it is for the enjoyment. We don’t do it for the sake of attention or success or anything like that, that was never really the ambition.

“I think sheer enjoyment is all.”

And there’s nothing wrong with that.