Nothing To Fear - Iglu & Hartly

“The energy was a little down on that show actually. We're used to having it a little more rowdy but we love playing every show and by the end they were getting it a lot further back than just the kids up the front.” It's a few days since Iglu & Hartly played the hallowed surroundings of KOKO in Camden Town and keyboard tinkler / vocalist Sam Martin is looking back on a show that saw the band go from maybe two rows of enthused support to getting uproarious applause. Iglu & Hartly's rise has been just as frantic going from one independently released single, some radio airplay and a host of SXSW blog bothering performances to a UK top 20 hit, a major label album '&Then Boom?', followed by a relentless touring schedule, in the space of one year.

“We moved from Boulder Colorado to LA and just started trying to make music but it's a really funny scene in LA, you have to pay to play so it really makes you have to work even harder at getting people to your shows and making sure they go off,” affirms Sam when considering the band rites of passage on the LA club circuit. Having met at the University of Colorado in Boulder City the nucleus of the band (Jarvis Anderson, Simon Katz and Sam)made the decision to pack up their lives and make the jump to LA in order to take the next step to world domination. Once there they were joined by drummer Luis Rosiles who flew in from co-front man Anderson's home tow of Chicago. The band adopted that old standard of band elopement - moving into a band house.

Rounding out the quintet is bassist Michael Bucher, “Yeah Michael is awesome. He was actually playing for another band when we first saw him and as soon as we did we just knew that this was a guy we wanted to play with,” confirms Martin. It was a wise decision as throughout the KOKO set Michael power walks, stomps and gurns like the bastard son of a Jagger, Angus Young and Justin Mendal Johnson tryst, all the while knocking out bassline after bassline that locks in with Rosiles to provide the pumping foundation that really carries the whirlwind pandemonium ignited out front by the twin rap attack. It's a part of the show that's an invigorating surprise.

On record Iglu & Hartly trade in saccharine electro pop with a candy apple rap attack that steals into your cortex and finds you humming the morishthancrack hooks to 'In This City' or 'Jump Out Of Your Car'. While their debut album may have received a critical slamming from some quarters, on stage it's a whole new level. Combined with the multi harmony vocals and pure kinetic energy generated they manage to do something a lot of bands are currently failing to do, building on their album in the live arena.

This live prowess is the result of more than 200 shows clocked up around the LA area that the band used to hone their chops before taking their raison d?etre to the masses, which given the aspiration and stadium nods of their debut album '& Then Boom' is exactly where they need to be to thrive. “We like to get everyone involved”, says Sam of their live shows, “We've played warehouses, house parties, clubs. It's all about working as hard as you can to make sure everyone has a great time y'know?”

They certainly achieve that with the relentless positivity and energy that pervades the record. Chart smashing single 'In This City', a love note to the band's adopted home in the tradition of the Chili Peppers, details the bands determination to stick around and see this through with the infectious mantra, “And I found that round here, that I won't disappear and I've got nothing to fear , in this city.” It's a universal anthem for those who across the globe who have moved to the big city in search of whatever their personal dream maybe.

Not necessarily a trademark Los Angeles band, a quick glance behind the electro pulses you get to a band who are not only charting their progress with seducing the girls of the city of angels, but who are clearly absorbing the world around them and want to get to the heart of the matter. “I wanna turn us all around now, take a step down, how can we all get along, when we're so violent and young?" they ask on their independently released debut single 'Violent and Young'. “We just write from personal experience and we?ll put something together based on something we can all relate to”, notes Sam.

The band will be back in the UK this winter and they promise to deliver a raucous tour, which, despite some deriding album reviews, will bring enough California sunshine to keep this country warm through to January. Sam beams “We want to take it to another level energy wise. I can't wait. Everything right now is an adventure.”