Earlier today (September 12), Pressparty went to spend some time with British rising stars The Vamps at the Universal Music headquarters and we spoke to them about who they're currently crushing on, their favourite bands, and how they're enjoying fame so far.

The pop-rock quartet are gearing up to release a new single called 'Can We Dance', the video for which has already racked up over 1.4 million hits on YouTube, and are putting the finishing touches to their debut album. They have already toured with McFly and recently supported Disney superstar and actress Selena Gomez on her dates at London's Hammersmith Apollo, and are set to continue on to even bigger achievements.

So we’re sat here chatting with The Vamps, hi guys! Introduce yourselves for us!

All: Hello hello!

Tristan: I’m Tristan. I play triangle, drums, and backing vocals in The Vamps.

Brad: I’m Brad, the lead singer and guitarist.

James: I’m James. I play guitar and sing backing vocals as well.

Connor: I’m Connor, I play bass.

Tell us the story of how you all got together. YouTube was somewhat involved, wasn’t it?

James: Yes. I found Brad on YouTube two years ago… oh god, yeah. And started writing together with him from the start, and then we found Tristan and Connor on YouTube. So YouTube really helped, yeah!

Do you think YouTube is a good place to help launch a music career? Acts like Justin Bieber and Boyce Avenue used that as a platform and have enjoyed great success from it.

Brad: Now, at the moment, it’s become one of the platforms you can launch yourself from. It’s not the best… it’s just however you want to do it. Some bands still get really big from going out and doing gigs and doing it that way… and ‘X Factor’ is still a huge platform. But, for us, YouTube was the best way.

Have you done the whole gig circuit thing? Have you been touring or working on independent projects before you got together as a band?

Brad: We’ve been doing independent gigs… so we met about two years ago, but before that all of us were doing pub gigs whether it was solo or touring with different bands. But now we’ve been a band for about eight months, all four of us, we’ve been on tour with McFly and did a lot of summer shows… we just did two shows with Selena Gomez at the Hammersmith Apollo, which was really fun.

What was the McFly tour like? How did it come about?

James: The gigs were through management, but they were really happy about the fact that Tom (Fletcher) actually invited us – it wasn’t set up. So that was cool, they were very supportive of us.

And you did that cover version of one of McFly’s songs where Dougie (Poynter) made a little cameo, are you all friends with him?

All: They’re all really nice, aren’t they? They’re all really nice guys.

James: I’ll show you a picture he sent me this morning… He sent me that picture this morning (opens up his iPhone's picture gallery and shows off a really odd picture of a distorted chin and neck with a tongue sticking out from it).

(Laughing amongst themselves, they poke fun at Connor in relation to the image)

Connor: “No... dude, my neck’s not that dangly!

Let's talk about the Selena Gomez dates that you’ve done. How were they and what was she like?

Brad: She was lovely, it was really nice of her to have us on those two dates and they were great. Hammersmith Apollo is a great venue – it was really fun. She invited us onto her bus and we had a chat with her. She’s a lovely… really down to earth girl.

What did you do on the bus; did you hang out or watch movies?

Tristan: Just hung out, it was cool.

All: She’s very attractive. She has a nice face! (In an American accent, James says: “I like her face”)

Are you recording an album at the moment?

We’re kind of finished! It’s about 90% done.

Brad: We’re really excited to get that out, it should be out, like, early… first quarter of next year. We’ve been doing it for a year/two years now and there are just some finishing touches. It’s going to be good as it’s all of our influences together in that and it’s a real showcase of what we’ve been working on. Can’t wait to get it out there.

What kind of musical direction did you take with the album?

Brad: I think… within the band there are so many different influences. There’s pop-punk, a bit more rock and indie, and acoustic… and then pop. So there are loads in there. It’s kind of a mixture. It’s got like a folky-acoustic-indie theme running through it, and a lot of pop melodies… it’s a big mixture of a lot of things really.

What bands and artists do you listen to – what are your favourite acts that might have inspired your sound?

Tristan: We all have different ones, don’t we? Me, probably Blink 182. Then I like kind of rap rock… Hollywood Undead, Lil’ Wayne… that kind of stuff.

Brad: I’m into more indie and rock stuff like Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Two Door Cinema Club.

James: I kind of like folk and country, but like acoustic pop as well. Taylor Swift, Damien Rice and Kodaline; things like that.

Connor: Bands like All Time Low, Panic! At The Disco, You Me At Six.

Brad: That’s what’s kind of gone into the record.

Do you think there’s room for another boyband in the music market right now?

Brad: I think whenever there’s a big boyband… (music starts playing loudly)

All: That music! It’s blaring out!

Brad: Whenever there are big boybands in the industry, it almost gives more room for others because people are into that at the moment and it’s obviously working. I think we look at it as a Lawson kind of thing – we all play instruments. Hopefully that comes across, we’ll see.

How old are you all?

Tristan: I’m 19.

Brad: I’m 18.

James: 19.

Connor: I’m 17.

Have you been playing instruments your whole lives?

Tristan: I started playing the drums a year ago (laughs). Since I was 7 so… 10 years. No, a little bit more, 12 years! (All laugh).

Brad: I started playing guitar when I was 11.

James: Yeah, same as Brad for me. 11.

Connor: Yeah, since I was 12.

Who’s your celebrity crush at the moment?

Tristan: Mine’s probably Amanda from Cover Drive, she’s hot. She’s goddess-like. I really want to see it (her body). They tweeted me yesterday, well, the Cover Drive Twitter did… I don’t know if it was her.

Brad: I think mine is Zooey Deschanel (talking about her band, She and Him), yeah She and Him, she’s got a lovely voice.

James: Taylor Swift for me probably. I like her music!

Connor: Ariana Grande or, uh, Selena (Gomez)!

We saw a video of you recently in New York City, are you looking to launch a career stateside? What were you doing over there?

That would be amazing.

Brad: We’re quite good friends with Lawson and they’re doing well over there at the moment so it would be nice to replicate that.

Tristan: (We were) Recording! Half our album was done there. New York and LA, and then in Guildford.

Brad: We were in the states for like a month earlier this year. We had a bit more time so we did the Central Park – it was sunny as well – went on the Staten Island Ferry, we saw Conor Maynard… it was good fun! 

What’s next for The Vamps?

Tristan: (Joking) Nothing. We’re calling it a day tomorrow.

Brad: We’ve got a single coming out on the 29th September and then we’re across in the states videoing our second single video. I think we’ve got some more shows at the end of the year – some radio shows – which should be big and fun. Next year we’re releasing the second single and the album! The single is ‘Can We Dance’.

Have you had any crazy fan experiences?

James: Some girl sent me her pubes in the post. Well, me and Brad, Brad was present. It wasn’t very nice. Imagine if they went everywhere and like fell into your mouth. We gave them to the manager. That was the weirdest.

Brad: I was looking through some post and I turned around, and he had this bag of pubes in his hand.

All: Craziest… well, fans have tried getting in the van while it’s moving. They’re awesome; we have the best fans ever. They’re just really nice and warming. They buy us lots of food, which is really nice. And they (fans) all like each other, which is nice.

While we remember, someone asked if you got the cookies they sent you after Selena Gomez’s show?

All: Oh, we did! We did actually! They were yummy!

Part two of the interview, which includes fan questions and the full interview audio, will be available tomorrow (September 13).

Watch their music video for 'Can We Dance' below: