On the back of coverage by various music magazines and blogs, New York band The Britanys are beginning to make waves in the music scene. Ahead of their show in the Rough Trade in Williamsburg, we sat down with the youthful foursome to find out what’s been driving them along.

After meeting through college and the New York music scene, the band have had their current line up since bassist Lucas Carpenter joined about five months prior. Completed by vocalist and guitarist, Lucas Long, guitarist, Jake Williams and drummer Steele Kratt, they are finishing 2016 by playing a hometown show.

When it comes to playing Rough Trade, the band say that there’s no more pressure depending on the location or venue. “The only pressure is that you fill the venue,” Says Kratt.

Long agrees: “The pressure is really headlining. When you’re headlining, [the pressure comes] more from the business side.”

When the conversation turned to talking about being a young band in New York, and what the music scene is like – whether there is camaraderie and support or not – the band erupt into laughter, so apparently not. “It depends who you talk to,” says Kratt. “You make your friends and you say hi to them. You have friends that run through but there’s a lot of social climbing.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of ‘Mean Girls’ attitudes” adds Williams, “it’s like high school.”

Long also mentions the bitchiness of the scene, telling how “there’s a lot of backstabbing, talking shit…We hear a lot of things through the grapevine. We never backlash though, we try take the high road.”

A big change for the band came when they were mentioned in the NME. The Britanys instantly started noticing the difference on their social platforms, with people from different countries starting to interact with the band. The NME compared the band to The Strokes and The Libertines, high-praise coming from a notoriously harsh magazine.

But this Libertines comparison is far from accidental with the band. They are all fans of British culture, particularly Kratt and Williams. “We are super obsessed with the UK,” explains Williams, from music to football (Williams is a Liverpool fan, Kratt supports Arsenal). There isn’t much surprise the band have taken inspiration from British artists. “Steel and I have both been obsessed with brit-pop,” Williams explains. “The first time we really hung out we went and saw Blur play Madison Square Gardens. There’s that anglophile thing for all of us.”

This love of brit-pop is something you can hear in their songs, particularly their latest single Basketholder. When discussing the increased attention on social media, the band explain how they see it as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they’re happy that it gives people a platform to interact with them, and find them. But on the other, the grind to consistently post and pressure of numbers, to have a certain amount of followers or likes, takes a toll sometimes.

2017 is looking like an exciting year for The Britanys. For one thing, they’ve just announced that they are heading to SXSW. Before that though, the band are heading out on tour in January with Public Access TV and Splashh, and it’ll be their first proper stretch on the road. During this time, they’ll be playing Washington D.C on a pretty historical day.

“We’re gonna play in D.C. on inauguration day,” Williams explains. “We also played a show in L.A. on election night. The results were being projected next to the stage as they’re coming in.”

“It was horrible,” Long adds. “It was our first L.A. show,” As the band were playing, everyone’s attention was grabbed by what was unfolding.

“So we’re playing the show and everyone is just looking at that,” Williams continues. “Then by the end of the show all of us are just playing guitar watching it because we couldn’t believe what was happening. That was the most surreal show I’ve ever played in my life. We were sad, when we finished playing Lucas [Carpenter] kicked the shit out of his bass – put it down and started kicking it because he was so pissed off… So we get to book-end that with actually being in D.C. when shit goes down. I think we’re responsible.”

Hoping to have an EP out by February, The Britanys are getting ready for an exciting and eventful 2017.