Local fans were elated to hear London Grammar will be playing in Brisbane early next year. The closest you’ve come so far is playing at the Byron Falls Festival last year, which was an incredible performance …
Yeah that was an awesome gig! That was one of my favourites in probably the entire year. It was cool. That was one of the most memorable shows I think we’ve ever done; it was a crazy show.

It was a unique experience to be standing in the crowd as thousands of fans sung along to ‘Hey Now’, and Hannah recorded it all on her phone. Is it mutual love between London Grammar and Australia?
Yeah that trip was really amazing, like proper special. And for so many reasons – we were playing to some of the biggest crowds we had played to at that point, and even still to this day, they were big shows compared to what we’re doing now. It was extraordinary doing it so early on in our careers – we hadn’t experienced playing festivals to that level really.

How have you found the reaction here, compared to the rest of the world?
It was a bit slower in the UK to pick up. Australia just seemed to explode, and England followed behind it. A lot of people say that nowadays – I think Australia is a place where new music breaks through even quicker, I know a lot of American radio presenters look to Australia as a comparable market. It’s interesting that that’s the case and it was just an amazing experience for us.

Frontwoman Hannah Reid seems to cop a fair bit of attention from fans and media – what’s been your weirdest fan moment so far?
Well, there are a few … In Europe, it tends to be the weirdest … We have a bit of a weird thing in Europe, especially in Brittany in France, we’re famous in a different way – in a much more commercial way. We’ve done a lot of commercial television shows there and it’s really blown up. I think because of that, we attract a different type of fan, particular younger fans, and they tend to be much more fanatical about the band – which is an amazing thing to have. Beyond that, we did a crazy show when we played in Lebanon, it was like being in One Direction for the day, it was ridiculous! They were really welcoming, which was awesome. We have lovely fans, but people can be really excited to see you – and that’s a weird thing to get used to …

You met your bandmates Hannah and Dominic ‘Dot’ Major at Nottingham University while you were studying economics and philosophy … What was the back-up career?
I actually don’t know what I would have done! I come from a really traditional Jewish family so the thought of roughing for a couple of years trying to be a musician does not float – let me tell you, that shit does not go down. So thankfully I was more or less on my way to a record deal when I walked out of university, so I got pretty lucky. I remember saying to Hannah and Dot, ‘If something doesn’t happen in the next few months I’ll have to get a proper job, you do realise this …’ And they were like, ‘What are you talking about, a few months? It’s going to be years before anything happens to us!’ And then we signed a record deal. We were lucky, and I’m very, very lucky that I met Hannah.

It seems like it’s been a pretty crazy ride so far – what do the people who know you best, like your parents and girlfriend, think of it all? Does it blow their minds?
I think they get a lot of pride from it, which is great. They’re really, really happy about it. My parents are pretty proud of it. But it takes its toll on you as a person because you’re just pulled from pillar to post. It’s been particularly crazy for us – and I don’t think it’s really what we expected, we didn’t think this was going to happen to this extent. So when it did, it was a bit overwhelming, but obviously in an amazing way!

Can you remember the first time you heard a London Grammar song played on the radio?
Yeah I do actually! It was quite funny because Dot and I were in a car together and BBC Radio 1 was playing ‘Hey Now’. We wound down the windows, and Dot shouted out ‘This is meee!’ He was all smug with himself and I just looked at him and was like, ‘Mate, you could have just been playing a CD, they wouldn’t have known it was on the radio.’

What’s the most unusual place you’ve heard your music played?
I think it’s the really big things that freak me out – like we’ve got a Dior advert on TV at the moment, which is just weird, because that is a big ad! It’s been amazing and it’s had such a good impact for us.

What’s your personal favourite London Grammar track?
I have sentimentality for ‘Hey Now’. I think it’s definitely the piece of music that the three of us are really in together, and it was such an important moment in the creation of the record. I also really love ‘If You Wait’, for the complete opposite reason, which is it’s just Hannah, she wrote that song herself, but I’ve always loved that song from a much more objective point of view.

If you never met Hannah and Dom, what other band would you love to play in?
That’s a really good question, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that before … That’s very cool, I don’t know actually. That’s really stumped me. I’d want to try to be cool and say, ‘Oh yeah I’d love to play in Radiohead’ – and Dot would be like, ‘I’d love to play in Flying Lotus’. But I’d totally love to be in a full-on indie rock band, a big one. I’d love to be in The Strokes, that would be awesome.

What were you like as a child growing up in London?
Not particularly cool, just a bit of an awkward teenager. I played guitar and liked music, and that’s stood me in good stead so far!

How old were you when you first got into music?
I started playing guitar when I was about ten or 11 years old. I remember being not really interested in the music on the radio, but much more interested in my parents’ record collection.

And as a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A footballer, probably! I think at that age you don’t even really think you can be a musician – it doesn’t seem like a viable choice of career, as something that ‘adults’ do. But I think when I was about 15 or 16, the idea of being in a successful band became a real passion, so that’s when it became everything.

The three of you clearly spend a lot of time together on tour – who has the most annoying habit on the road?
I always single Dot out – and he definitely singles me out. We wind each other up, and then in a combination wind Hannah up. But we all get along pretty well to be honest; we love each other very much.

What are your essentials for happiness?
Well my girlfriend, as my number one. And then music is the thing that keeps me pretty calm – it’s the only thing that tends to focus me, and stops me from worrying about other things. I have one of those minds that always seems to be worrying or thinking, so music tends to focus me, which is cool. That’s definitely the thing I need.

How do you personally define success?
That’s another really hard question … I’d say just making an album you’re proud of. But it’s always relative, and if you continue to strive for it, you’re always on to the next bit. I think that’s the really difficult thing about being in a band – I’m already beginning to worry about not being able to deliver a second record that’s really good or have the level of success that we’ve had on this record, or our success dwindling. But we always say it just boils down to music – the music is the only real thing that matters. You could do everything wrong, but if the music is good, then people will always keep coming back.