KEY POINTS:
Who: The Bravery - Sam Endicott (vocals), John Conway (keyboard), Michael Zakarin (guitar) Mike Hindert (bass), Anthony Burulcich (drums)
What: New York indie electro rock band
When: Playing King's Arms, June 13 and Wellington's San Francisco Bath House, June 14
There has been some confusion about The Bravery's origins in
the past. During their early tours of Britain, fans were often heard muttering about the boys' "fake American accents" as the band came off stage.
But there is nothing counterfeit about them. Despite their initial rise to fame in England, after New Zealander Zane Lowe played the boys' single on Radio 1, the band is actually from New York.
It was only after Lowe's plug that the boys made a temporary move to London, capitalising on their transatlantic breakthrough and paving the way for their single An Honest Mistake to debut at number 7 on the British charts.
It may seem a well-calculated strategy - to target Britain ahead of America - but keyboardist John Conway says there was nothing deliberate about it. It was just the way things panned out.
"The UK picks up on things really fast," says Conway. "Before we even had a record deal or anything, Radio 1's Zane Lowe had heard about us and started playing us on the radio. That caused a lot of people to pay attention to us.
"The States is so far apart and every little town has its own radio station, it takes a lot longer for things to get going on a national level."
Often compared to Las Vegas alt-rockers The Killers, The Bravery followed in the footsteps of fellow New Yorkers, Interpol, who also earned a reputation for being a Yank band with a post-punk Brit sound.
It's a sound that has gained a loyal following worldwide, leading them to New Zealand for the first time.
The tour comes on the heels of their second album, The Sun and the Moon, which will be re-released on June 3 as a tour edition, complete with a second disc of remixes by the band.
The second disc, which the band refers to as the Moon edition, sees all of the album's original 12 tracks re-recorded in the band's signature electro-rock style, as opposed to the lighter, acoustic version heard on the original Sun edition.
"I think when bands are doing their second album, you kind of get caught between trying to make something that's familiar and identifiable as your sound, and being kind of experimental and progressing as a band and as musicians," explains Conway. "Sometimes people take it too far in either direction. We tried to cheat and did both."
The Sun version, which came out last year, was a marked departure from the debut album's synth-heavy sound and allowed the boys to experiment with their musicality.
"We went into a real studio for the first time, worked with a producer for the first time and just kind of experimented with all these things that were foreign to us - a bunch of acoustic and vintage instruments.
"For us, it was more experimental, even though that's the way most people probably work and record music."
The result was a more acoustic, organic style of music, says Conway, who enjoyed his venture into the old school, learning to sing in harmonies.
With that out of their system, the boys returned to make the Moon side of the album, in the same tradition as their first record.
"We did that completely by ourselves, without any money or fancy equipment, in the back of our tour bus and hotel rooms with a lap-top and drum machine. It's more electronic and a little darker."
Songwriting goes through various stages, says Conway. Something slow and acoustic can eventually end up as a dance floor anthem. The record captures those different stages and shares them with listeners, he explains.
It also has the added bonus of doubling the band's repertoire in one hit, he laughs.
"When we're playing live, we try to do a lot of the Moon versions. They kind of lend themselves more to that. But we do both. We mix it up and that makes it more fun for everybody. It will be a surprise, maybe even to us, what we're going to do."
The set list won't be the only unscripted part of the evening. The band is notorious for its onstage antics, which have been known to include the odd impromptu striptease.
"The shows that get wild are definitely the most fun ones," says Conway. "We love crowds that encourage that."
Indeed, the boys have been having such a good time touring lately, Conway says it may be a while before they are ready to explore any new musical waters or head into a studio.
"We're starting to work on some new material now but it's still pretty far off actually recording our third album."
When the record does eventuate, there's no telling what direction it will head in. But there are two things Conway and frontman Sam Endicott have and will always be interested in: rhythm and melody.
"All the music that we've made has emphasised that. Good melodies, rhythms and beats that make people want to move will always be important and appealing to us."
