Sharing a love of doom metal, math-rock and 50s sci-fi themes, Rolo Tomassi formed before any of them had even begun to think about GCSEs. Now, they are one of the most exciting live acts you’re likely to find as you skulk around the streets of Brighton, or any other city for that matter.

Ed, James, Joe and, er, Joe play what you might call math-jazz-core, over which Eva – a girl so tiny she must be mostly lung – roars harder and louder than any sweaty, bearded man you’d care to mention. And if all of this sounds completely up the wrong street for your tastes, you’ve not yet witnessed this band in action; their incredible musical talent and showmanship regularly wins over the most unlikely of audiences. ThreeWeeks caught up with them ahead of their Great Escape show.

ThreeWeeks: How did you start out making music?

Rolo Tomassi: Our band is formed from the ashes of two other bands. We started making music together as we wanted to continue being creative, all got on well and shared similar tastes in music.

TW: What inspired your latest album?

RT: Musically, progressive rock. We’ve kind of tried our own spin on prog with four minute results. Compared to the average length of our older material (1.30–2mins) it feels strange but refreshing. Rather than thrashing as hard as we can in a short space of time we’ve worked more at heavy riffs and spacey breaks. Lyrically, a lot of the songs are about communication. A lot of people (myself included) aren’t particularly great at conveying how they feel, whether it be through speech, action etc and this is very frustrating. We’ve turned that frustration into lyrics.

TW: What process do you go through in creating an album?

RT: Our guitarist Joe writes the majority of music but the songs are assembled and structured as a band. Joe will come in with a bunch of riffs and ideas and we gradually piece them together in a way which we all agree on. Eva then writes lyrics separately and comes in when the song is finished to add vocals to the music.

TW: Which artists influence your work?

RT: If you asked any member of the band they would give you a different answer; but personally bands like the Contortions, Racebannon, Sonic Youth, The Great Redneck Hope and Converge influence me. That doesn’t mean I aspire for us to directly sound like any of those bands, I just enjoy the way they do certain things within their music.

TW: What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?

RT: Enjoy!

TW: What are your ambitions for your next album, and for the future?

RT: We hope to have our new album released by September 2008 and then tour intensively, hopefully getting to visit some overseas countries. Other than that, just to have a good time and keep making music.

Rolo Tomassi at The Great Escape, Revenge, 16 May.