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You would be forgiven for having flashes of djà -vu right now. A quick flick through the news shows Queens Park Rangers as a Premier League football team, whilst mentions of a little-known guitar band slowly taking the music world by storm are creeping into the consciousness. No, this is not 1995, but it sure feels like it.
Under the name Brother, four Slough-based young guns have been hailed as the next big thing and are being heralded as the flag bearers of a BritPop revival.
Despite calling their music style 'GritPop', Brother have found themselves being compared to 90s bands. Comparisons have been loosely based on sepia profile images which could be mistaken as a cast shot for Oasis: The Movie and a handful of exaggerated quotes. But really the comparisons stop there.
Sitting in a room with lead singer Lee Newell and guitarist Sam Jackson, you get the air of cocksureness and a confidence not too distant from the Blurs and Oasis' of the 90s. Lee, resplendent in a red shirt, ruffled hair and sporting a hoop earring turns to Sam, who, wearing a fitted black top, laughs at the suggestions that Brother are reviving BritRock.
Casually, Sam says: "We're not reinventing the wheel. We're just not afraid to bring back big rock and roll songs. It's almost like bands have been afraid of a big chorus. It's like no one has the bollocks to write them."
No doubt there is a 90s element about these guys, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Is it fair to criticise people for being influenced by a certain era? For example Barcelona's current side owe a lot to the total football which manager Pep Guardiola experienced under the stewardship of Johan Cruyff, and that is not a slight on their style by any means.
This is something Lee emphasises, when he speaks affectionately about the BritRock era. "You have to go back to the 90s, which is the last great era of guitar music. That is what we bonded over and how we were created. It's not the be all and end all for us, but it's certainly a starting point for the band.
Owing influences to the likes of the Smiths, Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, it wouldn't be ludicrous to assume that Brother are misplaced Mancunians. However, an allegiance towards Queens Park Rangers, for Lee and Sam anyway, ensures that the band remain tied to west London.
Although they may not be the revivalists some believe them to be, it would be fair to suggest that Brother are a modern take on a lad band. Typically for a lad band, they are unashamedly brash, albeit with an element of humility. Their music is full of big, catchy choruses and has an anthemic style which lends itself to the football terraces.
Clearly influenced by their love of football, Lee and Sam play with a Queens Park Rangers flag draped on stage, probably to the indignation of fellow band members Josh Ward and Frank Colucci, who are Portsmouth and Chelsea fans respectively. Nevertheless, the club appear as a reference point to the band's core, and they are in good company. Musical fans of the club include the likes of Peter Doherty, Mick Jones and Stephen Street, the latter who produced Brother's debut album 'Famous First Words'.
Philosophically, Lee compares the band's rise to prominence with QPR's return to the top flight of English football. "We certainly see parallels with QPR and our relative rise to success. It feels like we're top of the Championship in the music world and are now heading into the Premier League, the same as the boys.
"It seems very personal. I don't want to take this promotion away from any QPR fans, because it's personal to each one of us, but my whole life is surreal right now."
Reference to the band's hometown of Slough however, draws a laboured look from the lads, who have heard every quip about David Brent and quotation from John Betjeman under the sun. Slough maybe home for Brother, but it was the desire to move out which has fuelled their success thus far.
Lee proudly says: "I don't want to revolutionise the way people think about Slough, because the consensus is that their conceptions are quite true. What they are thinking is it's an industrial shit hole, but there are good people there.
"I don't want to sound awfully self-righteous, but really Slough is full of bastards, we're just four of them."
It is a rollercoaster time for Brother, who can add an appearance on the world famous Letterman show to the already sky high expectation placed upon them, all despite releasing very little content. Sam, turning away from Lee, coolly sips his coffee, before trying to decipher it all. "It's a weird one. People have been comparing us to other bands before hearing anything. Even now people haven't really heard much from us.
"When people hear our album, they'll say 'Oh, they don't actually sound like Oasis'. Then all those comparisons will go."
Lee continues with a confidence which befits the band's ethos: "Trying to please everyone, you're perfect to no one."
The nonchalance in which Lee dismisses critics is refreshing. In doing so he shows an infectious confidence in the band. He defiantly says: "We're not going to dumb ourselves down for people. We're just going to be ourselves and act very tongue in cheek. All the people that get it, will do and the people that don't, won't.
"We're arrogant in a way, but if you're not then you won't get anywhere. If you meet anyone at the top of their game, they've got an air of ambition or arrogance."
Sam interjects, "If we don't believe in our music then why should anyone else?"
In the same way that the next year will show if Queens Park Rangers have the belief and pedigree to survive at a higher level, Brother will need to show the same steel and desire to succeed in the music world. Although the stakes aren't as high, the prize on offer is equally as precious.
The new single 'Still Here' is out now, taken from their upcoming Stephen Street produced album 'Famous First Words'. Buy the single here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/still-here-single/id430580094
