Wonder of a hit

Kids of 88 are so-named because members Sam (left) and Jordan were born in 1988. Photo / Supplied

What started out as a 30-second bit of fun is now the biggest New Zealand song on the charts.

You may have heard the banging, slightly naughty and suggestive 80s-inspired anthem My House by mysterious local duo Kids of 88 that goes something like this: "I'm gonna take you back to my house, I like the feeling when you touch me baby ..."

And you may have seen the video too - the one with girls stripping down to their underwear as brightly coloured paint is hurled all over them. Oddly enough, it's done ever-so tastefully.

"The paint makes it a bit artier," says Kids of 88 singer Sam McCarthy. "It's not like they get water thrown on them and their clothes start going see through.

"And we used dancers as opposed to hot promo girls who can't really dance. It's more like you can focus on the paint hitting them and the movement which is a lot more interesting."

The Kids, also made up of knob-twiddler Jordan Arts, have maintained a sense of mystique since the song first played on a promo for music channel C4 six or so weeks ago. And not to blow their cover, but the duo is in fact an off-shoot of local pop punk band Goodnight Nurse, who 21-year-old McCarthy sings and plays guitar for. Arts is a long-time mate he met at high school and both were born in 1988 hence the band name.

McCarthy came up with the initial 30 second hook for the song in January last year. "I wanted to write this kind of music that sounded like an 80s police drama," he explains.

"And we [Goodnight Nurse] had also been talking about how it's a lot easier when you're writing songs to come up with melodies if your lyrics are really dirty and they rhyme: 'I had a lot of fun with your mum'," he laughs.

"So I'm loading the dishwasher and I just started humming this tune and I was like, 'Man, this is ridiculous'. So I laid it down."

He sent the short snippet off to Goodnight Nurse band mate Joel Little who insisted it be re-recorded and made into a full length song even though McCarthy thought it was just a bit of fun.

"It's got a spontaneity to it," says Little, "and that's how it came about. It was that thing about me calling Sam in the morning and saying, 'I'm coming round and we're going to finish that song', and we didn't really think about it too much. We're being a little bit cheeky and having fun on the side," he says.

Fast forward 18 months or so and with very little - if any - radio play the song entered the singles chart at No. 4 and topped the iTunes singles chart last week. This week it stays on top at iTunes and moves up to No. 3 in the national chart.

C4 can take much of the credit for the song's widespread popularity.

"We had an instant reaction to Kids of 88," says Amanda Wilson from C4. "Right from the first play of the promo we got daily emails and queries on the website asking who the song was by."

Wilson says the channel had a similar reaction when they used The Tutts K in 2006.

And chances are My House won't be a one hit wonder with more Kids of 88 songs in the pipeline. "But the whole key to Kids of 88 is that it's not forced, it's not like we're going, 'Man, we've got to get more tracks out'," says McCarthy.

Does it worry McCarthy and Little that Kids of 88 and My House could be, and probably already is, bigger than Goodnight Nurse?

"That doesn't worry me at all. It's all just making music," he says.

Kids of 88 is released on the indie record label Dryden Street, set up by Little and fellow Goodnight Nurse band mate Jaden Parkes in November last year to release different styles of music.

"We write a lot of songs and some of them aren't Goodnight Nurse songs," says Little.

While at present the two acts on the label are Goodnight Nurse off-shoots, including Parkes' 80s pop influenced project Like You Crazy, whose song Night Rider Side Kick has also been a hit on iTunes, there are a number of other acts Little and co are starting to develop.

"It just means we can find music that we like and help people out who don't really know where to start."

Not that they have lofty ambitions of being high flying music moguls. They would all rather be making music and writing songs than analysing spreadsheets and coming up with a strategic plan .

"The way it's organised is quite business-like, but in terms of the entrepreneurial master plan I don't think it's that businessy," says McCarthy.

"Our business model, whatever that is," smirks Little, "is kind of like we're taking small steps but every little step we take we make sure we do it right. I don't know where it's going to head. We have big ideas but at this stage it's just one step at a time."

Who: Kids of 88, made up of Sam McCarthy and Jordan Arts
What: The hitmakers behind current single My House