The Thrills biography

They rented a tiny two-bedroom place on the beach in Sand Diego, and had a whale of a time, dragging the house's raggedy old couches and a Lay-Z-Boy chair (which they had found in a skip) out onto the sand and chilling out. It all sounds pretty idyllic, but importantly it changed the way they all felt about their plans - as the guitarist said in a later interview, 'Everything changed when we got back to Dublin. The way we felt was completely different. We knew this was what we had to do.' The group shut themselves away in a studio and set about capturing that sunshine in musical form, by recording endless demos.

They signed to the small local indy label Supremo in 2001, but this association was not to last for long. However, momentum was building, and having kidded to their respective parents that they had signed to a major label already, and that megastar status was imminent, this white lie became reality in 2002 when Virgin beat off the competition from numerous major labels and snaffled up the group.

Major recognition, and a particular source of pride, came for the band when Morrissey, having been 'tipped off' by a mutual acquaintance, dropped in to see the group rehearsing. All devoted fans of the Smiths, the group did well to pick their jaws up off the floor and kept it together enough to keep playing. So well, in fact, that the Mancunian crooner was sufficiently impressed to invite them to join him on stage and open for him at the Albert Hall in September 2002. This had all come about despite, when hanging out with him (can anyone actually 'hang out' with Morrissey? Does he ever really kick back?), one of the band mentioning that they loved Phil Spector's famous Christmas album, prompting Morrissey's Grinch-like response of 'I hate christmas'. Bah, and to a very great extent, humbug.

Their debut album, 'So Much for the City' was released in May 2003, and as well as hitting the Irish number one spot and the UK number three, helped solidify the positive press they had already been getting, as well as earning favourable comparisons to several of the West coast American acts they so loved. Scarcely a coincidence, given their 'fact-finding' knees-up in San Diego, and that the album had ended up being recorded in Los Angeles, but it'd be churlish to take any credit away both from the band for writing such evocative songs, or from producer Tony Hoffer (who'd worked with Beck, Air, and the Smashing Pumpkins) for capturing them so well.

With second album 'Let's Bottle Bohemia' (2004), the band may have suffered slightly from the common problem experienced in following up a successful record. Having been composed whilst the band was still touring the first album, it was a rather less sun-kissed and easy-going record, and perhaps unsurprisingly some of that 'feel' itself may have been missing - as one reviewer noted, '...the record is so obviously cut from the same cloth as 'So Much for the City', only now the cloth is a little faded'. However, lead single 'Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?', as well as being an amusing question to ask, performed very well in the charts, and was far from being the only good song on the record.

By the time they were looking to record a third album, the Thrills had turned their attention, in terms of subject matter and influence, away from America and back to a more reflective, almost mournful home-town feel. And although they did not record 'Teenager' (2007) in Dublin itself, opting instead for Bryan Adams's studio facility in Vancouver, the lyrics cover nostalgic topics such as returning to old hangouts, only to find them abandoned and derelict, and bumping into long-lost lovers. Perhaps the band are undergoing a slightly painful process of discovering where they really come from, and who they really are, a reality that to some extent their San Diego jaunt had washed off them? Maybe not - could be that a bunch of boys who have known each other since even before they hit-puberty have the necessary set of shared memories to write a more pensive album, one which covers the various aspects of teenaged life and angst. The summer of 2007 has seen them hitting the festivals once more, and June brought about the release not only of the new album, but also of their new single 'Nothing Ever Changes Round Here'.

What does seem certain is that whatever their fortunes, if ever the Thrills are to break up, it won't be because of artistic differences or arguments over who has the biggest dressing room. Conor Deasy maintains an up-to-date blog of the group's comings and goings, and they do genuinely seem to enjoy each other's company, as well as a recent obsession with model planes (okay then...whatever...). The key to their successful band relationship, at least, seems to be the sheer length of time they have all known each other. Daniel Ryan maintains: 'What makes us different is that we've come up as friends. When we have day off, we all go to the cinema together. We don't all get home and then not see each other till we're at the airport.' It's all quite touching, really.

• The Thrills Discography