Ultrasound are probably the hippest British band at the moment. Exploding to fame thanks to an NME Unsigned Bands competition, they ve actually been around for far longer than most people think. In fact, their 'overnight success' has taken nigh on 20 years for enigmatic frontman, Andrew 'Tiny' Wood (35).
"It all goes back to 1979," he laughs. "I always wanted to be part of a band. I didn't want to do it on my own I wanted to be part of something."
Tiny spent the next decade "in different bands, going nowhere extremely slowly", before in the mid-80s attending Wakefield College where he studied 'Popular and Commercial Music'. As he explains now, "I went to college to meet people who maybe I could work with". His quest proved successful, hooking up with the then 16-year-old Velvet Underground fan, Richard Green. The duo soon recruited drummer Andy Peace and formed a band, Sleepy People. However, it wasn't until the addition of bassist Vanessa Best and Matt Jones on keyboards that Ultrasound were born. They promptly moved to London, where they found . . . apathy.
"We spent about two years in London playing to nobody," recalls Tiny, who has admitted in the past that this was a low point for the band, who were crammed into a crummy flat in Acton. Then came the infamous Unsigned Bands Competition which saw Ultrasound explode, both visually and musically, into the eyes and ears of an unsuspecting public.
They are quite a bunch to look at, from Tiny's Meat Loaf-esque stature and cross-dressing cool-bastard Richard and bald drummer and former bodybuilder Andy Peace. They looked and sounded the part, songs like 'Stay Young' endearing them to the indie kids and the inkies alike ("Hey kids, rock 'n' roll is here/ So scream all you like/ It's a raw pagan fury"). Not your average indie-by-numbers then. Cue a record company feeding frenzy.
"We weren't interested in signing to the biggest record company, with the biggest budget," says Tiny. "We wanted to sign to the label that would stick by us if things went wrong, the label with the right people."
It didn't stop the others trying to woo the band with posh dinners and promises, however.
"We had all these record companies bringing us out for expensive meals in fancy restaurants, which was really amusing for about six months," he laughs. "I'd never eaten in a restaurant before then. I didn't think you could get a meal that cost more than two quid."
This was when the band were still in that dingy flat when a trip to the local supermarket with a fiver fed all five of them. "I knew the value of things then," he laughs.
Eventually, they "got sick of all these people in record companies trying to impress us 'cos they just weren't impressing us" and decided to throw their lot in with Nude Records, home of Suede, who Ultrasound have been compared to, along with Radiohead.
While Ultrasound made their reputation on their live show, being on stage isn't the be-all-and-end-all for Tiny: "I love the recording process," he says. "I love being able to make albums because, at the end of the day, the music is there even when you're not."
Tiny once admitted that he wanted to be a music journalist in his 20s, and it is true that he has always had a love affair with sound, amassing a mammoth 2000-album record collection. To this day, he is still first and foremost a fan: "There's never been a time when I'm not thinking about music. It's the reason I get up in the morning. It's the reason I go out."
With their debut album just hitting the shelves it would be a fair assumption that Ultrasound would be embarking on a massive tour to promote it, but Tiny is just anxious to get back into the studio. As he admits himself, he's not getting any younger. "I just want to go in and record the next album now. After all, this is just the debut and I'm already 35." n
Ultrasound's Album, Everything Picture is out now on Nude.