Since releasing their first single "Bullets,"--which sold out in a day--Birmingham-based indie rock band Editors have had the British press raving. Their album The Back Room has been praised as "a stunning debut" (MOJO) and "an extraordinary piece of music" (NME). Lead singer Tom Smith spoke with Ticketmaster while the band was in L.A. in January performing a handful of intimate shows. The band will return to the U.S. in March for a more extensive tour starting at Austin's South by Southwest music festival.

TICKETMASTER: I hear you met in a Music Technology class. Did you initally want to become sound engineers?

TOM SMITH: Yeah, kind of...I don't even know what we were thinking (laughs)...You get to that point when you finish college and you're not really sure what to do with your life and obviously we're massive music fans and in our heads somewhere we wanted to be performers and be in a band, but we hadn't met the right people, so going to university obviously increases your chance of meet like-minded people. Maybe somewhere in our heads we knew that we wanted to work in studios but we were all terrible at it and, you know, it was so technology based that it was kind of for--for the want of a better word--geeks, do you know what I mean? (laughs) 'Cause those are the kind of people who are good at that type of thing. We became friends very quickly and some of us did well and some of us didn't, but our music grew out of our friendship.

TM:  Very early on, you generated a lot of industry buzz and were courted by

several labels. Why did you eventually decide to go with Kitchenware, an independent label?

TS: I'm not gonna lie and say we had millions of pounds on the table from other labels--we did have offers from major labels but it was a pretty easy decision to make when we met Keith, the guy who runs Kitchenware. He was just so passionate about our music and so in tune with what we wanted to do...You had bands like Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party at the time on independent labels but still making music that was crossing over--it really wasn't hindering them. And with Kitchenware, there's a history to the label that we learned about after we'd met Keith and made the decision. It's nice to be a part of the resurgence of the label.

TM:  What is the label's history?

TS: They were big in the '80s--they had a number of guitar bands. Prefab Sprout was probably the biggest one. When we finished University we thought about moving to London, but we didn't...We're very proud to be where we are and we're very happy to be working with the people around us.

TM:  Describe the Birmingham music scene. I understand that it's the birthplace of heavy metal Judas Priest, Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin have their roots there .

Does there seem to be a reigning genre there today?

TS: UB40, Black Sabbath, Duran Duran--you know these bands, the famous ones that have come out of Birmingham--they all sound pretty different. It's never been like what a Manchester was or the Northeast now is, or had one kind of thread...It's like any big town, you know. People kind of look down their noses at Birmingham as a place and its musical heritage...but it sheltered us and it looked after us and even though none of us individually are from Birmingham, I don't mind people thinking of us as a Birmingham band. So I hope we're doing the place proud.

TM:  You changed your name from Snowfield to the Editors. What prompted the name change and where did the name come from?
TS: We didn't like the name Snowfield, really. It conjured up the wrong imagery for what we're about. We loved the way the word (Editors) looks. We're actually just called Editors, there's no "the." It's an easy mistake to make, so we don't get upset when people call us that. But it's a stamp, you know, band's names. Oasis or Elbow--you don't think of the literal meaning of the word when you say them, and if you give a word a meaning or a new meaning, after a period of time it takes on what you've given it. And Editors was one of those words that we thought looked great and it didn't need the "the" because why use two words when you can use one? ...People have said, "oh, you changed your name because of Snow Patrol" when that's (false).

TM:  So who are your musical influences?
TS: When we started listening to music together and forming ideas for the band, there were two records in particular we bonded over--the first Strokes record and the first Elbow record. Elbow are an amazing band.

TM:  They are. And they're virtually unknown in the U.S.
TS: Right, it's a shame. It's criminal, to be honest...I think somewhere between those two bands is what we're trying to do. Personally, the thing that got me wanting to be in a band in the first place when I was 13 was when Definitely, Maybe came out and the Brit-pop thing exploded in the U.K. But I quickly moved onto things like Radiohead and I discovered R.E.M. and their entire back catalog. Murmur and Reckoning, their first two records, are my favorite ever albums now. We like to react to everything, new and old.

TM:  Your music is constantly being compared to Joy Division as well as your voice to the late Ian Curtis. Do you find this tiresome?

TS: In the U.K. it's kind of gone away now. I understand when you're a new band and describing new music, it's very hard not to mention other bands. Of course, I see similarities in what we do with some bands, but we've never had any pretenses with what we do. We've never made any decisions about our music thinking about any period of time or any kind of scene. We try to make passionate, exciting guitar music. We do it in a dark vein because we're not equipped to play happy songs (laughs). But as bleak as the music may sound on first listen, I think that there's a lot of hope and romanticism in the lyrics as well...And we're too young to be influenced by Joy Division.

TM:  Have you noticed any differences between U.S. and U.K. audiences?
TS: In the U.K. we're considered to be a fairly big-ish band of the new bands now. Here, we're an unknown entity. People said that the L.A. audience would be quiet and a bit stand-offish, but they weren't. Everyone is very friendly over here and I'm surprised at the amount of people who know the words to a lot of the songs, which is great. The internet is a very powerful thing at the moment and it's brilliant...So even though our record is not even out here (U.S. release is in April 2006), there are some people who are fans, which is amazing for us because it was very unexpected. But yeah there is a difference now because in the U.K., our album's been out for a while and we have--well I wouldn't say an army of fans--but we have a number of fans who sing every word back at me very passionately.

TM: In a recent interview we did with We Are Scientists, Keith (the lead singer) cited the Editors as one of his favorite live bands. What bands do you think put on an amazing show and why?

TS: We are Scientists (laughs) for their constant amusement and incredibly catchy pop tunes. They're an amazing band, we had a lot of fun touring with them this year. They are intelligent jokers and cleverer than they make on. I saw Arcade Fire this year which is another level of music performance and you think, "we might as well stop" when you see a band like that. Or we'll try to catch them up--that's what we'll try to do!