Iglu & Hartly get down and dirty

By Damian Jones
Newsbeat reporter

Iglu & Hartly's single In This City has been hogging Radio 1's airwaves

"I enjoy stripping off when I'm really hot, if I didn't, I think I'd pass out," declares Jarvis Anderson, frontman of LA surf funk rockers Iglu and Hartly.

For those of you who don't know these bare chested electro funksters are currenty hogging the Radio 1 airwaves with their feel good summer anthem In This City.

The Californian golden boys also recently caused a stir during a Frisbee frenzied performance at the V Festival earlier this summer.

"That was a crazy show," gushes Jarvis. "We had all these Frisbees flying around onstage in this little tent.

"The crowd were trying to throw them at us but little did they know we're experienced Frisbees players. (Michael) Bucher caught four with his teeth while he was playing the bass alone."

Joining forces

The band are completed by guitarist Simon Katz and keyboardist Sam Martin who dropped out of The University of Colorado with Jarvis before joining forces with drummer Luis Rosiles and Bucher.

From there, the funk rockers shunned the chance of recording their 11 track debut album, & Then Boom, in a conventional studio, instead opting for their new home in Echo Park, California.

"We could have recorded it in a studio but I don't like big professional studios. You feel like you're in a spaceship in Star Trek or something. There's all these futuristic consoles and weird rooms," Jarvis explained.

"We just wanted to have fun making the album because the whole purpose of our music is to talk about our daily process of living.

"We'd go out, make a tune, go out to lunch have a few beers, come back and lay down a few more tracks."

Recorded with Mark Needham, who has previously worked with The Killers and My Chemical Romance, & Then Boom is described by Jarvis as "like that scene in The Wizard Of Oz when the picture flips from black and white into colour."

"To me that's what our music sounds like because it's so different and it fills a void in music, it brings colour and life," Jarvis argues. "It's pop music but it's totally natural and fun."

Chaotic shows

The surf rockers, who are currently touring the UK, have already built up a reputation for indulging their audience during their chaotic shows.

We don't stand still onstage trying to look cool - We just have fun Jarvis Anderson Iglu & Hartly singer

"We're not the type of band in the sense that we want to be musicians," said Jarvis.

"We just make music because we understand the vibrations of life. We don't stand still onstage trying to look cool.

"We just have fun. Other bands should really try what we do."

Iglu & Hartly's inescapable single has already peaked at Number Three in the UK chart.

But Jarvis said the band have been so caught up in their work that they haven't had a chance to hear their anthem on the radio.

"I think it's awesome that we're getting all this airplay but I haven't heard anything on the radio yet, seriously. Everybody I bump into goes, 'You guys are played all the time'," Jarvis said.

"I had the best moment of my life when we recently played in London and this girl came up to me and she said, 'I've been into you for so long but you're so mainstream right now. In This City is so cheesy'.

"I was like, 'Yes, that means we're getting somewhere'." I like that because I want our music to speak really loudly to everybody."

& Then Boom is released on 29 September.