Currently riding high on all the music channel charts, touring around the UK with McFly, and generally rocking out wherever possible, The Void caught five minutes with Alex from Elliot Minor to find out how things are going on the road.

Elliot Minor. You may not have heard of them. But then they are fairly new on the scene so that is to be expected. What is not to be expected however, is just how likeable and damn addictive their music is. Imagine, if you will, that Bach or Mozart were around today and instead of writing concertos, decided that they wanted to get into pop instead, with catchy lyrics, pianos, guitars and ‘bunnyhops’. When we spoke to Alex from Elliot he was travelling down the motorway in the wonderful British rain to get to another one of their many, many gigs, and so was more than delighted to chat to us about the band.

The Void: Alex, nice to meet you. First of all, the name, Elliot Minor. Where did that come from?
Alex: No problem at all. You know the TV programme Scrubs? There’s a character off that called Elliot who we are big fans of, so the came from there, and then we play a lot of minor chords in our songs, so it seemed an apt name.

How did the band get together in the first place?
We all went to the same school, so we’ve all know each other for years through that. We decided to form a band which started off as an acoustic thing, performing together and writing songs after school and also during our gap year. We then just started playing shows in front of people and it all happened from there really.

Was there always the intention to become a successful band?
No, not at all! It was just one of those things that happened.

How would you describe your sound to anyone who hasn’t heard you before?
It’s pretty much a cross between classical and rock music. The album is going to be quite diverse. There are a few rocky tracks on there as well as a few more pop sounding tracks. But then there are going to be a few tracks with more orchestral stuff around it. We recorded with a string section so there’s going to be few more epic tracks on the album than usual.

Who would you say were your influences when you were looking for your particular sound?
It varies from different band members, but we’re all huge fans of Muse, and also film music, so composers like James Hannigan, John Williams, etc. Oh, and Simon and Garfunkel too. They were awesome.

You have been referred to a lot as a mixture between McFly and Muse in the press, and now you’re touring with McFly around the UK…
Yeah, which is quite funny because we went to the same school as Harry, the drummer in McFly, so we have known them for a while. We first gigged with them last year, as we won a competition on MySpace to support them in concert, so it’s cool to have been asked back to be support on their proper tour.

You have been touring the UK a lot recently. Any good stories from on the road?
Not yet. We have had some really good shows in Newcastle and London, and as you can expect, touring with McFly is pretty mad. We recently played an acoustic set in a guy’s living room because he won a competition, which was pretty cool. It’s just been exhausting having to do shows every day, but just really really fun. It’s the first time we’ve had our own a tour bus so we are just making every second count.

So what is next for Elliot Minor then?
Well, the album comes out in February next year, so we are releasing the next single, Still Figuring Out on January 28th, touring HMV stores to promote the album and, yeah, just keep on gigging.

Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into the music industry?
Keep on writing and practicing. It gets a lot harder once you are known to actually find the time to write so spend every spare moment just writing and getting demos sent out.

Elliot Minor are currently supporting McFly on their UK Tour. You can find out more about the band here, or buy their latest single, The White One is Evil, from here.