Arctic Monkeys - Teddy Picker

Fast and furious

They've only released one single, a pop-punk vignette, yet they are already Britain's most talked-about new band. Dorian Lynskey meets Arctic Monkeys
It's a radiant late September day outside a recording studio in rural Lincolnshire. Summer is still clinging on by its fingertips, a lawnmower purrs in the background and four men are clustered around a garden table. Nothing in the way they talk, act or dress marks them out as unusual; a casual observer certainly wouldn't take them for that well-worn music business cliche: the next big thing. But according to the people whose business it is to predict such things, that's exactly what Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys are.

"We're expecting them to do a Franz Ferdinand or a Kaiser Chiefs," says Mel Armstrong, rock and pop manager at HMV. "They've built up a massive word-of-mouth following. You can't put a lid on it now. It's exploding." The NME, meanwhile, has dubbed them "the most talked about new band in Britain".

Asked how it feels to be the object of so much approving attention, they sigh and squirm like teenagers faced with a well-meaning but bothersome relative who wants to know how they're getting on at school. "I dunno," mutters quietly spoken frontman Alex Turner. "You've got to go along with it really. You can't do 'owt about it. See what happens." He trails off and intensifies his gaze on the tabletop.

Arctic Monkeys - Cornestone

Arctic Monkeys: 'We want to get better rather than get bigger'

The Arctic Monkeys' pitch-perfect songs about youth culture (girls, mates, chips, cabs, poseurs), Gordon Brown's namecheck and their huge internet popularity rocketed the Sheffield band to the top of the tree. Here, as they release their brilliant fourth album, they talk candidly about fame, politics and falling in love

Hey hey, it's the monkeys: 'Whatever it is that makes us sound like us is built into the four of us.' Photograph: Levon Biss for the Observer

It's probably a good thing that when I interview the Arctic Monkeys I get to speak to their frontman, Alex Turner, three times. The first time, we meet in a private members' club in east London (where Turner lives with his girlfriend, TV presenter Alexa Chung) and he is quiet and reserved, with lots of silences punctuated by flashes of dry Sheffield humour. The second time, at the photo studios with the rest of the band (guitarist Jamie Cook, bass player Nick O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders), he seems more relaxed. And the third, talking on the phone from the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Carlisle, he is friendly and charming, signing off with a cheery "Nice one, love!"

Arctic Monkeys - Brainstorm

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an alternative rock band formed in Sheffield, England in 2002 after meeting at Stocksbridge High School. The band consists of Alex Turner (vocals, guitar), Jamie ‘Cookie’ Cook(guitar), Nick O’Malley (bass) and Matt Helders (drums, vocals). Founding bassist Andy Nicholson left in 2006.

Each of the band’s first five singles I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, When the Sun Goes Down,Leave Before the Lights Come On, Brianstorm and Fluorescent Adolescent hit the UK Top Five, but their sixth single, Teddy Picker, only went Top 20 and their seventh single, Crying Lightning peaked at #12.

The band’s rise to success started in late 2004/early 2005 when demo songs which had been handed out in CD form at gigs found their way onto the internet. These demos rapidly spread among message boards and friends leading to a growing fan base for the band, and were collected on the unofficialBeneath the Boardwalk, which the band recognizes on their website. The band owe much of their success to viral buzz via the Internet, and have eschewed typical ‘commercial’ channels, including refusing to appear on the UK’s (now discontinued) Top Of The Pops music program, which was often seen as a gateway to success.