Forming this year, Brighton indie four-piece House Points are taking the music scene by storm.

Boasting energy-filled live performances and managing to land gigs on festival bills around the country, SAM ROWLANDS sits down with frontman Nick Tompkins to talk about moving to Brighton, starting a band and life on the festival circuit

How did you all meet and start a band?

Nick, Brad and Karl all met when looking for their housing in Brighton; Josh and I were in the same class at university and then, when we needed a new bassist later down the line, Josh volunteered his services.

Where did the name House Points come from?

Back when we were brainstorming names for the band we ended up going on a tangent about all the classic primary school stuff like conkers and Pokémon etc - during which, our mate Harvey suggested House Points and we just went with that.

And what is a house point?

During primary school (well ours anyway) they put us into houses (I was red house) and every time that you were good in school you would get a house point. Then every Friday in assembly they would announce which house had earned the most house points that week.. and trust me, it was a real thrill to win.

How does your songwriting process go?

We vary it slightly, sometimes I will come in with a complete song and then the whole band workshops all the parts and make any changes needed. Other times somebody will write a riff or a hook and I’ll take it away and build a melody and a structure around it. The melody and chords always come first, the lyrics are the final thing to be written.

Who are your biggest musical inspirations and influences?

We each have quite varied inspirations individually, but collectively we’re all into bands like The Strokes, The Orwells, Palma Violets, SWMRS and Demob Happy.

What made you decide to move to Brighton and go to BIMM?

We were all desperate to join bands and exploit Brighton’s music scene, since it’s one of the best in the UK. We were all in our own bands before, from places where the music scene is just not there. So moving to Brighton was a big opportunity to be somewhere much more musically hospitable.

You have had a busy summer playing festivals, which has been your favourite so far?

Definitely Y Not Festival as we had the best time on stage and probably ended up playing to our biggest crowd to date. Brad knocked over a mic stand which made us look like real ‘bad boyz’ - although Karl also sprained his neck and could barely move for two days and someone knocked the wing mirror off my car, so I guess it had its ups and downs.

You’re playing Brighton’s very own Together The People this weekend, who else are you most looking forwards to seeing?

We are massively excited to see Brian Wilson, as Pet Sounds is one of the best albums that has ever been written - we’re gonna be waiting around with a CD and a Sharpie for that one. We’re also well excited to see another Brighton band Atlas Wynd again too, they are always incredible!

What is next for House Points?

We have got a heap of new songs that we are just finishing off so the plan is to get those all wrapped up as soon as we can, then look at booking some more gigs and then some studio time.

FIND OUT MORE: