The Faults are a four-piece indie rock 'n' roll band based in Finchley and have just released their newest tracks online. Rosy Moorhead catches up with frontman Tom Roberts to talk dodgy band names, Noel Gallagher and the death of electronica. Who’s in the band? Tom Roberts, from Shrewsbury, frontman; Alex Palmer, from Potters Bar, lead guitar; Dave Taylor on bass and Brad Hewitt on drums, both from Cheshunt.

How long have you been together? Me and Alex got together when I first moved down to Finchley from Shrewsbury in 2006. Dave came on board in 2007 and Brad came in about 2008. We used to be called Silverman and then we had the world’s worst name - Gadet. It was horrendous! And then we landed with The Faults, which has stuck.

What’s the story behind the sound? The main influence is absolutely Britpop - we’re from the era of Oasis, Supergrass, Shed Seven, and our influences go all the way back to The Who and The Clash. We’re British rock ‘n’ roll.

A definite direct influence for me was Noel Gallagher - he was the whole reason why I started playing guitar. I was sitting watching Oasis do Live By The Sea [the band’s legendary gig at Southend in 1995] when I was about 12, and I thought ‘I fancy a bit of that!’ What’s your favourite song that you like to perform? At the moment, Desert Dreams. It’s got a nice big hook in the chorus that people can sing along to - we really love playing that live. We’ve been working really hard since Christmas on new stuff and there are a couple of songs we’re going to play at Proud in Camden next week that are, hands down, going to be our best songs yet.

What are your fans like? We’ve very blessed, we’ve got a good group of people who come to all our shows who’ve been with us since spring 2007, when we did this little Battle of the Bands competition in Mill Hill. A lot of them are in their mid-20s and are maybe looking for music that’s more guitar-based, louder, Britpop style as opposed to the more electronic, syntho style that you’re hearing. There’s a thirst for our kind of music among our age group.

What do you think of the gigging scene in London at the moment? We’ve played the Hope & Anchor in Islington and Barfly and Dublin Castle in Camden - genuine music fans would go down there on a Friday night because they wanted to hear new music, but now they charge so much to get in it’s hurting the local, up-and-coming music scene. That’s why the gig at Proud is such a good opportunity. At the moment, we’re taking it gig by gig - we want to make sure our fans are coming to shows that are really good quality.

How do you write your songs? The song-writing process varies. I find I’m personally at my best when something in my life causes me to have an emotion other than normal - if I’ve had a bad moment at work, something annoys me. It’s always something really specific, something gets my blood boiling and I literally have to run home as quickly as possible and pick up my guitar!

What have you learnt about being a musician? That you can put in so much effort to writing a brilliant track, you can do interviews, you can send a thousand emails, but sometimes you’re just not going to get anything. You just have to deal with that and keep your chin up. If you enjoy what you’re doing and you genuinely believe in it, the opportunities will come. The most important thing is to continue to enjoy playing in music - otherwise there’s no point.