Manchester duo The Hurts make the most amazing melancholy music we’ve heard in a minute…. Hattie Collins meets its swarve lead singer.

“It’s simple,” decides Hurts frontman Theo of both his taste in food (“just bread, no butter”) and the rather beautiful brand of music that he makes. “Simple but effective.” He lies not; brandishing a particularly lowkey brand of pop music, he and bandmate Adam deliver “emotional electronic music” that has a particularly British sensibility. “For me, it seems to that there’s a lot of carrot and stick going on in the world of pop music. People dangle an unattainable emotion in front of people’s faces; whether it’s extreme happiness or extreme sadness.” Rather than wallow in despair or push exaggerated ideals of love, Hurts have a more realistic style of songwriting. “It’s a case of making the most of what you’ve got. If you convey how you really think, then hopefully you make people happy,” Theo explains.

Their first single, Wonderful Life is the perfect example of such balanced balladry. Set to a synth-infused soundscape, Theo tells the story of two strangers falling in love on a bridge; right after ‘Susie’ stops the unnamed man from jumping off. “I approach songs in quite a cinematic way,” nods the Manchester musician. “That whole middle ground of melancholy is that there’s extreme light and extreme shade. The man is the shade and the woman is the light, I guess. And it’s just a nice story too really.” It certainly is; so much so that electronica legends Arthur Baker and Kurtis Mantronix have done remixes. “When you’ve got people like that understanding what you’re doing, it’s a great sonic compliment,” says the Saville Row suit sporting Mancunian. “The way we sound comes a lot from that world.” Within their as-yet-unfinished album you can expect to hear Italo house, African percussion, straight-up ‘80s-ish inflection and a whole lot of air. “People aren’t given enough space in music; it’s making simple things effective. We try to take something intricate and try to make it special.”

Inspired by the sparseness of Timbaland and fans of The xx, another big name in the game who knows a bit about music-making is also an admirer of the pair. While Adam was working at the dog track (Theo was in scaffolding at Superbikes, literally), he received a call from a big, bearded hip hop guru. “Rick Rubin [Jay-Z, Run DMC, LL] called up one day while Adam was at work- that was a strange scenario,” laughs Theo. While they’ve yet to work with Double R, it’s another sign that their music is destined to take them to greatness – and beyond. “If you only made music for your mates down the pub, then you wouldn’t do what you do,” insists the singer of Hurt’s pop ambitions. They might not be in-your-face X Factor pop, but what they do certainly has the ability to appeal to the masses. “I don’t really understand why you’d do music as a hobby. Music that touches me is the music that’s intended for everyone. We feel like we know what we’re doing, we know what we want and we’re quite competitive about making sure we achieve that.”

Wonderful Life (Arthur Baker remix) is out 18 January. Hurts tour in February. Informationhurts.com.

Tags: Interviews, Pop, The Hurts