Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: A word of mouth revolution

For the art-rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, word of mouth has worked wonders, as the front man tells Fiona Sturges

The US art-rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are causing quite a stir. A few weeks after their self-titled debut album was released to glowing reviews, the band, led by the singer-songwriter Alec Ounsworth, have sold 30,000 copies in the UK, pushing their worldwide sales up to 200,000. In the BBC News website's Sound of 2006 poll of critics and broadcasters, CYHSY came second.

The band, which counts David Bowie among its fans, is coming to the end of its second British tour - it sold out within hours of being announced. Not bad for an outfit that made its name, Arctic Monkeys-style, on the internet, and still operates without a record company.

Luckily, Ounsworth, a softly spoken 28-year-old with a penchant for orange clothing, isn't a man to buckle under the weight of expectation. He makes a point of not reading the band's press, and pays little attention to sales figures. Even with the swelling gig attendance and journalists clamouring for soundbites, he seems to have barely registered the hype. "It's flattering that people are paying attention," he says, with an air of bemusement. "That's what you want, I guess. But success is relative. Are people successful just because they've sold a million albums? I don't know. To me, it's all about doing the best you can and putting together a good album. The rest is out of your hands."

Named after some unusually upbeat Brooklyn graffiti, CYHSY started making waves early last year with their incendiary live shows. Through word-of-mouth, they quickly graduated from playing to one man and his dog, to crowds of 500 or more across New York. By late spring, due to public demand, they recorded an album. The result, an eccentric blend of indie pop and folksy psychedelia, driven by Ounsworth's nails-down-a-blackboard wail, makes them one of rock's most exciting packages since Arcade Fire. The album opens with the yelp of a circus ringmaster over a wheezing Wurlitzer, before settling into more melodic territory with 12 loopily titled songs, including "The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth" and "Upon this Tidal Wave of Young Blood".

"When we finished recording, we just mentioned on our website that there was an album for sale. We didn't have any expectations. To begin with, we were sending out a couple of copies a day, but the demand got greater. We'd all sit there for hours stuffing envelopes and making trips to the post office with a big cart!"

A defining moment, says Ounsworth, was a review on Pitchfork, the indie website that also helped put Arcade Fire on the musical map. Demand for the album skyrocketed and, by late autumn, they had sent out 25,000 copies. Now, the band uses a distribution company, but remains unsigned, and its success begs the question: what can a label do for a band that a band can't do for itself? "That's what we asked the labels when we met with them," says Ounsworth. "We didn't see any point in pursuing a label then, and I still don't. Sometimes, there's a disadvantage in pushing your music too hard. I like the idea that you present something, people like it and find a way to acquire it. These days, people have more access to music than ever. If your work is good, people find you."

Born in Philadelphia, Ounsworth began his musical life when his mother signed him up for piano and guitar lessons. He gleaned his knowledge of music from his parents' modest vinyl collection, the radio, and rummaging in local record stores. At 17, he started writing his own songs and recording demos.

After graduating in 2000, he took a series of low-paid jobs that allowed him to work on his music. "I didn't have any definite ambitions but I knew music was what I liked doing best," he says. It was a "kindly nudge" from friends who had heard his songs that decided Ounsworth to form a band. The timing was perfect. In the summer of 2004, he ran into twin brothers Lee and Tyler Sargent, whom he'd met at college. Ounsworth gave them a tape of his songs, and they signed themselves up as guitarist and bass player. A few months later, the Sargents moved to New York. They brought in Sean Greenhalgh (drums) and Robbie Guertin (keyboards), and the band was complete.

Despite the band being based in Brooklyn, Ounsworth prefers life in Philadelphia. "It's comfortable for me," he says. "Keeping a distance means that I don't feel like I'm part of a scene, which has got to be a good thing." It is this approach that has led writers to use words such as "shy" and "reclusive" to describe Ounsworth. Are they accurate? "I suppose I am those things next to, say, Mick Jagger. As far as the band's concerned, if things start getting a bit crazy, I don't think I'd be comfortable with people coming up and talking to me. My mother always told me not to talk to strangers."

'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah' and the single 'In This Home on Ice' are on Wichita