Reasons to be airful

2007 is still young and the race to be This Year’s Arctic Monkeys is far from over.

Air Traffic, the latest cavalcade of young challengers hail from Bournemouth, just a little up the road from the slightly brighter lights of Brighton. Legend has it that Chris Wall (vocals, piano, guitar), Dr. J (drums), Jim Maddock (bass) and Tom Pritchard (guitar) used to practise in an aircraft hanger, where air traffic control signals would get picked up on their amplifiers, hence the name.
When we catch up with the boys just before their recent gig at The Hub, I decide it’s such a nice rock story I can’t possibly ask them about it in case it turns out to be rubbish. Besides, with the huge buzz building around these young chaps, one suspects there’ll be an entire canon of Air Traffic conjecture before the year is out.
Last summer, their debut EP, Never Even Told Me Her Name, was played frequently and loudly by BBC Radio One and the Kerrang! channel. They were promptly signed by EMI and even though their first album won’t be unleashed until this coming July, producers were impressed enough to snap them up for Later With Jools Holland alongside the usual gallimaufry of legends and idols.
“It was really, really scary”, recalls Chris. “I mean you never expect to be on Jools Holland especially not when it’s your first time on television. Suddenly, we’re playing in front of The Killers. It was mad.”
One suspects they’ll just have to get used to it. Over the last ten months, there’s been a whirlwind of activity around Air Traffic and they’ve gone from rehearsing in a hangar to making videos and touring with Snow Patrol.
Meanwhile, rock journalists have been doing what they do best – comparing the band to just about anyone you can think of. The NME decided they were “Supergrass covering Little Richard”. Others have mentioned Coldplay, The Strokes and The Buzzcocks.
“Supergrass are a really big influence,” says Tom. “I mean, we all have different tastes in music and I think every song we’ve recorded for the album is pretty distinct. We love all sorts of stuff like Radiohead and The Who and The Clash but I think the piano definitely has that Supergrass thing going on.”
Ah yes. The piano. Inevitably the prominence of that particular instrument has led to comparisons with Keane. The boys, however, are having none of it.
“Keane are only an influence in so far as they have a piano and they’re successful,” says Chris.
“Yeah”, nods Jim. “We have a piano because Chris is just so bloody good at it.”
Nevertheless, like Keane, listening to the boys’ ridiculously catchy tunes they don’t strike you as the angriest bunch of 21 year-olds.
“Suppose not”, says Chris. “Actually we’re saving all our anger for our radical revolutionary third album so you’ll just have to wait until then.”