In the old days, before computer games and television, before the internet and before mobile phones, there was a book that came out every year that lit up the eyes and minds of young boys everywhere. Scouting For Boys is still issued every year, updated for the modern day yet also wonderfully anachronistic at the same time, though it surely can’t sell as many copies as it once did – insert here ambiguous Morrissey-esque comment about how the influx of modern technology is making traditional British identity disappear. Still, it’s far from forgotten. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if it there was a new surge in its popularity and it began to climb the bestsellers list at Waterstones in direct proportion to Scouting For Girls’ ascent up the music charts. Obviously, Scouting For Girls is a nod to the book, one which, as former Cub Scouts themselves, the members of the band were more than familiar with.

“The name is actually like a metaphor for growing up,” explains Roy Stride, singer and pianist with the Ruislip group. “It’s taking that book, Scouting For Boys, which is like a real boys manual full of stories about how to survive in the woods battling bears and changing it to girls, which is fun and cheeky…but it’s that transition from when you’re at school and you’re a kid to when you wake up and you’re in the real world. That’s essentially what it is, but most people just think it’s about girls. I just think it’s cheeky and fun. I don’t know if I’d have called it something different, but it does represent, you know…I was always really pleased with that metaphor.”

As confusing an explanation as it is enlightening, it still makes sense somehow. It’s a name that, like their songs, draws on the band’s nostalgia for childhood, innocence and – most importantly for them – the first time you meet that special someone.
“The album’s a quirky look at the first time you fall in love,” says Roy, “and the first time you lose someone. You know, the first time, when you’re 17, 18, 19, 20, whenever it hits you first, and it’s the most powerful thing in the world. When you get older you get more cynical and jaded, but that first time is one of the most amazing experiences of your life. Those are the emotions I’ve tried to document.” And then he adds: “But in a fun way. It’s really hard to write love songs that aren’t sugary or sickly…”

Anyone with even a passing interest in music can’t fail to have noticed Scouting For Girls’ ascendancy into the limelight. They’re playing three sold out shows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in April and their album recently hit the top spot, some 18 weeks after it was released. Both are extremely impressive feats for a band who, just two years ago, didn’t exist. More impressive, perhaps, is that despite all this success, they’re still some of the nicest, down-to-earth, friendliest people you could hope to meet – and genuinely so. It’s probably because, although it seems like success has taken no time at all –and in some respects that’s true – they’ve actually been doing this for over decade.
“We met at school,” Roy says. “I met Greg when we were at secondary school, when we were eleven, and I met Pete when we were in Cub Scouts, when we were about six or seven. We’ve been playing music for something like thirteen or fourteen years. We were all in various bands – well, Pete we found wandering round in the woods somewhere – but we’ve been playing in different bands for about ten years. We started Scouting For Girls about two years ago and it just seemed to really work. It was something we really enjoyed. We signed the record deal last February, recorded the album the next month and…”
“…we’ve been on the road ever since!” interjects Greg, laughing.
“Yeah! It’s been really quick in one way, but it’s like a rollercoaster. You’ve got the bit where you’re going up and it’s chnk-chnk-chnk and that was all beforehand…”
“..and what?” smirks Gregg. “It’s all downhill from now?”
“Heh. Yeah,” grins Roy and everybody laughs.

Jokes and humility aside, the Scouting For Girls back story is one of hard work and dedication and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, with a real DIY ethic driving it. It’s all too easy to forget where a band has been once they make it big – especially and when there are so many unworthy overnight success stories – but the trio are taking nothing for granted. In fact, they still find it hard to believe everything that’s happened to them.
“I find it very hard to think about people perceiving stuff about us. It’s all so new to us. It’s kind of weird that we’re even in a position to be judged. It’s really weird.”
Perhaps all the more so because, this time last year, the band were all still working jobs. In fact, this Christmas was the first one for a decade or so that they haven’t all been working over the holiday period. And they’re still adjusting to being professional musicians.
“I was working in Carphone Warehouse,” Roy says, “and I quit after we got signed, but my manager asked if I could still work Sundays. And he was completely serious. I was like, ‘We’ve signed. With Sony.’ And he said ‘I know, but I’m really stuck. Just Sundays?’ And the thing is, I nearly thought about it, because when we were recording the album we were doing it Monday to Friday and had the weekends off! Because you never know, do you?”

At the rate things are going, it doesn’t look like they’ll be going back to their old jobs, but you do never know, it’s true. But right now, they’re living the dream. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.

Mischa Pearlman