Archie and the Instincts: The Xfm factor prevails

Archie and the Instincts have just beaten all rivals in Xfm's Unsigned competition. Clare Dwyer Hogg meets three dazed young men

Archie and the Instincts. Not a name you'll have heard of, but then that's the point. They're the winners of tonight's Xfm Unsigned competition, and no, none of them is called Archie. Although their name might tell a different tale, they like to keep things simple. "We're a rock band," nod Tom, Bevan and Sammy, who are still looking shellshocked at being interviewed. They're just trying to be themselves (despite the Archie confusion) because, they say, you can get far too anal about describing your own music, but they do want to be characterised as rock band. What about the fact that someone has dubbed them "melodic punk"? Does that sound right, too? "Yes, pretty much," they say. "We're not that bothered." So anything goes, then – testament to the fact that they're just off stage, a bit stunned at having won the contest, and not having had time to become precious.

Rock and punk melodies aside, is the Greater London radio station Xfm likely to have unearthed the Next Big Thing? This might seem a somewhat redundant question, but Archie and co have just beaten off the competition from an impressive number of fledgling bands. The radio station's plan had been to give unsigned acts a chance to be heard on air and, if their track got a good reception, to sell their demos in the Fopp chain of music stores around the UK. Sadly for all the hopefuls, an avalanche of bands, including Archie and the Instincts, thought this was a great idea, too.

After four months of radio executives sorting through the tapes of Hampstead hip hoppers and Nuneaton nu-metal merchants, four finalists were chosen for tonight's Battle of the Bands- style final. Step forward Archie and the Instincts, The Naked Apes, Cosmonauts and Melt. All have just played their hearts out for the prize of studio time with the producer Dave Eringa, who's currently working with the Manic Street Preachers.

The result: the three boys from Guildford, earnest and a bit overwhelmed, are all set to work with Eringa. What are they hoping to get from it? "Absolutely everything", is their excited reply, and they mean it – albeit with a laugh – because this is the lucky break they were waiting for. Eringa knows all about that. He's been around. "They have a reality about them and an emotional resonance that made them more powerful than the others," he says. "But depressingly, after 10 years of producing, so much of it is not about really having a good record. That's just the first step. All you can ask for after that is a shot," Eringa smiles. "Hopefully they'll get that."