Rolo Tomassi talk jazz, Trencher and building family ties

Talking to The Bolton News about the five-piece's live performances, vocalist and keyboard player James said: "They're pretty intense, we really give it our alll. If people are paying to see us and we're travelling to play somewhere then we really want to make it worth everyone's while. And as much as we enjoy recording stuff, we're definitely a live band. So you can expect five people seriously putting there all into the eprformance and lots of flailing limbs."

Described as "The Dillinger Escape Plan crashing into the Tate Modern," they were recently crowned one of the UK's 10 hottest new bands by Kerrang! magazine.

Their Untitled Extended EP was a complete sell-out on its first release, and will now be re-released on October 1.

Despite the fact that most of the band have barely finished their A-levels, James doesn't think that they should be lumped in with the astonishing number of young bands that seem to have sprung up, including I Was A Cub Scout, with whom Rolo Tomassi have shared a stage on numerous occasions.

"I think the whole for the kids thing' is a lot more apparent in the indie bands and the NME," says James.

"I mean, there was the Underage Festival recently and I wouldn't really associate ourselves with that - I think that because of our sound we're a bit separate to that. It's not that we're inaccessible, but at the same time I don't think we're the poster boys for the teenagers or whatever."

And any critics who believe that the band do not have enough life experience to be writing great songs are quickly shot down.

"You could say that, but a lot of older people are writing about things and are leaving a generation of people out," says James. "We're writing with a youthful experience and even though we might not have a hindsight we're commenting on things from our perspective."

The band dislike being described as "prog rock", saying that instead they come from a hardcore background and have simply added other styles on top of that.

"I'd say we're a progressive hardcore band," says James. "We've got roots in heavy hardcore music but we like to try and build on that and add a different dynamic to it. And I think in that sense it's not so much prog rock as progressive', in that we're building on the foundations of what's already there.

"So we're developing ideas coming in from other genres, like jazz, fusion, noise, and then we try and experiment with music that's pleasing to play, and if that's pleasing to hear then that's a bonus for us really."

The five-piece, who are named after a character in the film LA Confidential, formed around two-and-a-halfyears ago.

They are currently taking a gap year before University, in order to concentrate fully on trying to build a career in music.

And not only are they good friends, but lead singer Eva is also James' sister.

"We have our rows, like brother and sister do, but I think we've definitely got a greater understanding of each other from having to spend a lot of time together in a confined space," says James.

Alongside the afore-mentioned Dillinger Escape Plan, James says that their influences also include The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg and Trencher, along with 90s bands such as At The Drive In and "any kind of rock music that's got a little bit of an edge, has something a little bit more to it than just your straight-up stadium rock."

James also talked about escaping from the "New Yorkshire" scene.

He said: "To be honest, a lot of bands will play loads locally before venturing out of town.

"I think for our first live shows we did Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham and somewhere else, because when we played as a band before on a smaller scale we just played the same places to the same people and it got kinda depressing. So we just wanted to get out of the city straight away.

"I think because of that we've never tied ourselves down as a Sheffield band'. So no, I wouldn't lump us in with the whole Yorkshire/New Yorkshire movement."