Eclectic musical mix makes familiar sound

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, May 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Singer Matt Bishop of the band Swtiches proclaims his group “a neurotic bunch of obsessive-compulsive weirdos.”

The British band comes to the House of Blues on Friday as part of the Nylon Magazine Tour of indie bands.

“We bring all sorts of different musical backgrounds,” Bishop says. “I grew up with a lot of ’70s rock because that was in my house. Our bass player is into show tunes. Our drummer is very much into hard rock — Guns N’ Roses and stuff I really don’t listen to, but it works well. It brings some power to our pop.”

Bishop, bassist Thom Kirkpatrick, guitarist Ollie Thomas and drummer Steve Godfrey met while college students in Surrey, England. They formed their band a couple of years ago in London.

They claim influences as far-flung as David Bowie and Michael J. Fox.

“We do pop rock with three-part harmonies and dirty guitars,” Bishop says. “Not many bands combine Queen-esque, Beach Boys-esque harmonies with sort of heavy rock ’n’ roll guitars. We like to think that we’re doing something slightly unusual with the harmonies, but it is fundamentally rock ’n’ roll.”

Switches toured the United States last year with American indie rockers The Bravery. But this year they have something of their own to promote — their debut album, “Lay Down the Law.”

“It’s a collection of three-minute pop songs, really,” Bishop says. “That was our plan, make an album much like the Beatles’ first couple of albums.”

That type of music appeals to a broad fan base, Bishop says.

“We have a little ’70s bite to our music and there may be a lot of people that were around, growing up in the ’70s, if they ever heard our music now would enjoy it,” he says. “And kids kind of growing up now are discovering the music for themselves. They can identify with what we’re doing.”